Olympic Progress

Progress after Day 2:


Actually got alot of knitting done Saturday while watching the USA women's hockey team beat Switzerland. Then I got even more done while watching the Canadian women beat poor Italy 16-0 (a new olympic record!)

Then I got alot of knitting done Sunday because of this:



That is about 10" of pretty white stuff. Glad I wasn't in NYC at the time. When I came back to the city this morning, we had gotten 2 feet!

And here is my progress for today. I finished the back up while on the train back to the city this afternoon.



The pattern is moving along quicker than I thought it would. I'll try to at least update with a picture if nothing else every night. I can't wait to wear this sweater. The Polar is soooooooo soft, but it sheds alot!

Olympic Eve

The Knitting Olympics start tomorrow and I am so ready. The gauge swatch has been worked, the cable practiced and the yarn packed and ready to go for Jersey tomorrow night. My fiance has a lot of studying to do this weekend, so hopefully I'll get a lot of knitting in!

So with the Olympics going on, don't expect me to be too talkative here. I'll try my best to post progress shots, but there probably won't be a lot of commentary. I've learned over the almost year I've been blogging that sometimes it can be a bit time consuming and takes away precious knitting time! Plus I should really try to stay away from the internet completely. Too many tempting things to look at!

While waiting to start on First Aid, I decided to take my fairisle out of it's bag and block it.


That's a lot of ends!

Then the next night, I blocked the sleeves. Notice anything wrong?





For whatever reason, I decreased on the edge on one sleeve cap, and 2 stitches in on the other. Considering I ALWAYS decrease 2 sts in from the edge this just blew me away. So after the Olympics I'll be reknitting one sleeve cap. Luckily this shouldn't take too long and I'll have one more FO under my belt. I'm so happy I've actually been sticking to that part of my New Year's resolution! It's almost shocking actually.

Good luck to all the Olympians out there! Remember to rest periodically so you don't hurt those precious hands. And if you aren't participating, happy knitting!

P.S. Thank you for your nice comments on my green sweater and hush hush. Maybe one day I'll get together the green sweater pattern and submit it or post it here! I really appreciate your encouragement!

What To Do Now

So now that Hot Lava is finished and the Knitting Olympics are starting on Friday, what's a girl to knit?



I decided to start the Turtleneck Shrug by Teva Durham from Scarf Style. I had bought the yarn months ago during my trip to upstate New York, so it luckily didn't involve any yarn purchasing. Considering there is very little shaping, and it is knit entirely of 3x3 rib, I figure this will be a pick up whenever project. I started on Thursday night and have only knit about 5". This is going to be a slow go, but will be so cool when it's done in the summer when it's too warm to wear.

I have also been "in training" for the Olympics. I cast on a few stitches just to make sure I remembered how this darn cable goes. I don't know why this pattern gave me so many problems over the past 2 years, but now it will be officially conquered! Yay!

And since it is the year of the sock, I wanted to share a recent book purchase (well, a couple weeks back really). It is called The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook by Lynne Vogel. This book gives you the full monty: dyeing, painting, spinning, designing, and knitting. It is really quite inspirational and the photos are gorgeous - not to mention you can design your own personal unique socks from fiber to finish!

And last but not least, when I was digging out my Rowan Polar for First Aid, I found two finished projects! When I moved last August, I placed them in with my yarn stash so they wouldn't get damaged or lost. I guess I didn't exactly lose them, I just forgot about them:



Hush Hush by Libby Baker
Size 2 and 3 needles
Cone of 2/3 pearl cotton

I still can't believe I was able to finish this project (which was actually finished in 2004, it just took this long for me to block the darn thing!). This dress is basically 3/4 stockinette with 4 horizontal rows of ribbing on the princess seams to keep things from getting overly dull (and did I mention on size 2 and 3 needles!). This project is tribute to my patience, which sometimes I think I have way too much of! Either that, or it shows just how masochistic I really am.



Green sweater by moi (I'm so creative at naming things!)
Size 4 needles
3 balls of Kidsilk Haze

This was the third sweater I had ever written a pattern for. I think it took me 4 months just to get the right type of pointelle to work with the KSH. I swatched like crazy on this one. The sweater was finished about a year ago and I believe it took about 3 months start to finish. The reason I never posted it was because I had been thinking about submitting this to Knitty and I had been going back and forth about it since then. I should have just submitted while it was fresh in my mind! Oh well!


I love the buttons!

Disaster Averted

This is the quite large ball of yarn left after ripping out, not 3, but 10 rows. And here is the end result:



Yay! No more bad, bad collar! Patience pays off, whew!



Hot Lava by Jenifer Paulousky
4 skeins of Manos Del Uruguay 100% Wool - 138 yds/100 gr
Size 11 needles
Started Jan 18th - Finished Feb 1st

I guess I'll start with the modifications. I took 1" off the underarm seam or else the sleeves would have been too long (on me at least). Across the shoulders, I eliminated the "spine" and shortened it to 18" across instead of 21". I thought this would help eliminate the dreaded "poof" at the back, and it did a little bit. For the body when you get to the increases, I did only 8 repeats instead of the 11 called for the small size. This was due to #1, my row gauge was off - I was getting 4 sts for the pattern's 5 and #2 the collar was too big and was bunching at the neck.

If anyone is planning on making this in the future, I have two important tips for you. First, buy more yarn than called for! The first run, I ran out. After the collar correction, I had about 2 yards left (after taking three rows off the collar, making the sleeves shorter and taking 3" off the shoulder). This is especially important if you are making one of the larger sizes.

Second, make sure you bind off the collar very loosely! I used the lace bind off method and this is how you do it (this is for you Dana):)

Knit 1
*YO
Pass 1st st over YO and off needle
K1, pass previous st over
K1, pass previous st over*
continue from * to *

Basically, you are doing a normal bindoff, but adding a YO every two stitches. You can control the stretch of the edge by placing the YO every stitch for more stretch or every 3 for less stretch.

Overall, I am very happy with the finished sweater - even with the little collar issue. I couldn't help but wear it out today and I love it! It also gives me another sweater to wear my awesome rhinestone skull pin on! After a full day of wear I have no complaints of excessive stretching or pilling either.

Hot Lava finished?

Hot Lava finished? Sort of, let me explain.

So I was at LIC SnB last night and all the Hot Lava knitters were giving me those bad knitter stares. You know, the "I've been sick of this stockinet stitch for days and your almost finished and I hate you" looks. (All in good fun of course.)

Well girls, here is your revenge.

So I came home, took out Hot Lava with only 3 more rows to go. I was watching the State of the Union address, yelling at the TV a little, and knitting along. Earlier in the night, I wondered if I had enough yarn to finish. Helen told me to wrap yarn around the needle 10x and then count off yarn from there. I had enough, but barely. Well, when I got to the cast off, which needed to be done very loosely, I ran out of yarn. I was doing a lace cast off, which involves yarnovers, therefore, more yarn than I had calculated for. So I ripped back and did YOs every 3 sts instead of every 2. Still no good. Then I tried every 4 sts. I was going good until the last 60 sts (of about 150) and stole some yarn from my one sleeve that was a little longer. No harm done right? It was done after ripping back 3 times. So it's 12:30am and I run out to the living room to try it on. The bind off is too tight. Too tight! Ugh!

Luckily I was too tired to cry.



The loose bind off allows the collar to lay correctly and as you can see above, it does not lay correctly.

So even though I thought about throwing it in a corner to rot, I feel like the Manos deserves better than that. So I am going to rip back 3 rows and try again, this time sticking to the YOs every 2nd st. Sigh.

Random Stuff

I would just like to thank all of you for your nice comments on Butterfly. Hopefully I will have some time to find a slip this week and I can model it for ya. I almost went to look today during my lunch hour, but I didn't think I'd be able to trek all the way downtown, find the perfect slip and be back in an hour. I can't wait til it gets warm and I find a slip so I can wear it! It's calling to me!

This weekend I met up with two of my old high school buddies from South Jersey:



Sara (left) had only knitted a garter stitch scarf before and Robin (middle) was a newbie. I gave both some lessons and they were off and loving it! They have been my best students so far. The above picture was taken at the end of our session. Robin had a nice, even "flag" of garter stitch and Sara learned how to purl. Since we don't see each other too often, we are going to try to keep one weekend a month to meetup and knit. I hope we can keep our promise!

Hot Lava is coming along well. The sleeves are finished and the body is about 1/2 way there. I'd post a pic, but it isn't too exciting right now. It just looks like a big purple blob with arms - but in a good way!

I've decided to join Lolly's Project Spectrum and Sew? I Knit! I think Project Spectrum could give me a little shot of inspiration I've been needing so desperately lately. I also came across Sew? I knit! tonight. It is a gathering of knitters who want to start or get back into sewing. I've been wanting to dust off my sewing machine for a few months now, and there is nothing like group motivation! I haven't sewn anything since my sophomore year of college, right before my knitwear specialization kicked in. I just hope I have enough time to devote to both of these projects! Plus the Knitting Olympics are coming up - I need to start training! So many interesting things to do, so little time!

I Now Present You With.....

Butterfly!



Butterfly (dress version) Rowan 37
Yarn: KSH 3 balls
Size 8 bamboo needles
Started July 2005 - Finished Jan. 25, 2006

It took me 4 hours to finish this baby up tonight! I finished at exactly 11:59pm and I really had to push myself on this one. The bottom trim took a bit of time, but the main body went very quickly even with placing random beads around. Knitting with beads is a very pleasant experience, however getting them on the KSH with a small needles causes one to curse a little. The picot bind off around the armholes and neck is very pretty, but it took a little patience to work. Even though it's only 39 sts on each section, for every 6 you bind off, you add 3 more. It seemed like it would never end! I don't recommend finishing this in one night (especially if you're a little sleep deprived).

Overall I absolutely loved this project! It satisfied my addiction to KSH and challenges. The dress fits me very well, but I couldn't model it because I don't have any slips. I need to go shopping for a nice vintage slip now. Anyone know of a good place to go where I don't have to spend more money than I have to? After all, I need to save every bit for more yarn - more KSH even.

Close up of picot bind off edge.

Look at the little beads!

I think the funniest thing is that I wanted to wear this to my cousin's wedding back in August! Ha! Took a bit longer than a month I think!

This Has Gone Too Far!

So I get an email from a member of the LIC SnB that our Yahoo group is nowhere to be found! Immediately I blamed the Sew Fast Sew Evil people and quick checked it out. Yep, our group is gone, but why?? We didn't even have Stitch n Bitch in our group name. Our official name was LIC knit!

I have heard a couple of stories about some groups losing their site because the group owner did not change their group names, but I thought we were beyond that due to SnB not being involved here. Guess I was wrong! I was a moderator for the group, and I never even got an email warning. Our owner is nowhere to be found -haven't heard from her in months, so maybe she got a warning but doesn't check her Yahoo account? I guess we will never know.

I didn't even want to go into the Sew Fast Sew Easy dilemma on my blog, but now that they have messed with me and my SnB group, I have no choice! For anyone out there that hasn't seen the deal somewhere else, here is the scoop: Sew Fast Sew Easy owns the trademark for Stitch & Bitch Cafe, an online chat room or something. They sent out a complaint to Yahoo Groups that SnB groups were no longer able to use the name Stitch and Bitch due to trademark infringement. Some groups changed their names, others were deleted. Apparently Yahoo doesn't do any investigating into the matter, if they are asked to shut a group down for whatever reason, they comply. Debbie Stoller is also involved due to the title of her books. I say this is absolute bull plop. The Stitch and Bitch name has been used for sewing/knitting circles for about 50 years now! If you want some more info, or want to track what's going on check out this website . It appears they may have a special boycott website dedicated to this cause up soon.

And in knitting news:



Hot Lava is coming along great! In fact, I feel a little guilty because this is supposed to be a knit-along with my LIC girls and I feel like I'm going way too fast. Now, I haven't seen anyone's progress from last week, so maybe when I show up on Tuesday, others will be at the same point. But until then, I'll just sit here feeling guilty. I do have a good excuse though (why do I have such a guilty conscience?). On Friday, my train to Philly was delayed due to two, yes not one, but two stalled Long Island RR trains in the tunnel. I waited 1 1/2 hours to get on my train. Then on the way back from NYC tonight, there was a NJ Transit train stalled in front of us and debris on the track! That took 45 minutes to clear up. So an extra 2 1/4 hours of knitting time really helped speed Hot Lava along. I mean, what else was I gonna do!



Butterfly is blocking away. I actually have the front on top of the back. I wanted to make sure that they were both blocked to the same measurements. I blocked the back last Thursday and placed the front on top tonight. I should be ready for some exciting mattress stitch action tomorrow. Yay!

And The Winner Is........

First Aid wins it hands down 7-2. After some careful considering, I also felt this was the project for the challenge. The dang cable chart has made me crazy for 2 years - yet I keep coming back for more! Plus, this is the winter olympics, so isn't it better that I'm knitting something that can be worn in the blistery NYC winter? And on that note I present you with.........

Butterfly Progress!


This is a horrible picture, but you can see that the front, knit 2nd, is a tad bit smaller than the back, knit 1st. Thank God for the blocking process! It is really teeny-tiny, but after knitting no less than 3 garments out of KidSilk, I know of it's tendency to grow and expand. Hopefully this tendency doesn't leave me with dreaded knit dress/skirt molded butt syndrome!

And since I finished all the knitting I could on Butterfly before the blocking is finished, I started Hot Lava. We are having a little knit-along with my LIC SnB group and I'm two weeks behind, so I figured I might as well start. I'm so excited to finally be working Magic Loop. It's so much fun!



Before everyone thinks that I am a knitting fiend, let me just say that all this knitting was completed over the past couple days because I was in bed with a bad cold with nothing better to do. I'm feeling better now, (and back to work, hmph!) I just wish I had this much knitting time everyday. Boy, this whole knitting olympics thing may just be a bigger challenge than I bargained for, but to that I say Bring It On!

Knitting Olympics

By now, I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the Yarn Harlot hosting the 2006 Knitting Olympics. Basically, all "competitors" have 16 days to finish the project of their choice. So, because I am crazy, and I haven't had a good challenge for awhile - I'm actually thinking about joining. Problem is, I want this to be a really good challenge, and I'm torn over what project to pick. Here are the canidates:

1) Butterfly (tunic version): I just picked up my dress version again this weekend, and I'm moving along quite well (let's see I've only been working on this since July???). So I figured this could be a good chance to work on the tunic version because deadlines are good. Otherwise I'm afraid that I'll never get the tunic version done. Plus I already bought yarn in a beautiful teal color for it.

Pro: already have yarn, need a push to start second version
Con: feel like I'm cheating because I am already familiar with the dress pattern

2) First Aid cable cardigan: I already have yarn for this one too. But is knitting something on Size 11 needles really a challenge for me? But then again, I've put this pattern off for 2 years now because I just recently understand the cable chart.

Pro: Yarn in stash stock, cables aren't anything to scoff at
Con: Size 11 needles - is that cheating?

3) Corset sweater: I've had my eye on this one for awhile, but I have the feeling this might be a bit unrealistic. I'm fast, but I'm not that freakn' fast!

Pro: definitely a challenge
Con: need to buy yarn, might be a bit unrealistic

So those are my choices - any suggestions?

FO Frenzy

What an excellent way to begin a new year - by finishing up two projects in one night! Lucky #2 is finally finished! And the Log Cabin socks are on my feet as we speak. I'm a bit tired, but it was so worth it!



Pattern: Lucky (by moi) from Stitch'n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Lobster Pot Lace weight cashmere in Hydrangea - 100% Cashmere 400yds (7 skeins)
Size 3 straights
April 2005 - January 2006

Whew! Lucky #2 is finally complete! The Cashmere made all that sewing up so worth it. If I had to do another one in cotton, I'm not sure I would have made it. Just touching that sweet, sweet cashmere made every stitch a pleasure. The 1 1/2 hours it took me to sew on the infamous neck band was like a dream........you get the picture! So the first lucky took me 3 weeks, the second....well a bit longer. It's amazing how much a deadline affects knitting time.





Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays
Rowan Cork:95 merino wool/5 nylon 120yds (3 balls)
Size 5 double pointed
Dec. 18 - Jan. 12

I love these socks! The Rowan Cork is so spongy and warm. Perfect for keeping my toes warm and comfy in my sometimes cold apartment! I couldn't help but finish these after Lucky, they were calling to me "Please finish these four rows! And we only have 2 ends to weave in!" I couldn't resist!

Knitting the cork on size 5's was a little bit challenging. I felt like I had to knit really tight to keep ladders from forming and to keep them from stretching out too much after wearing them one time. I also learned something new from this little pair of socks - how to fix a cable twisted the wrong way. I dropped all the cable stitches back 5 rows and made it out to tell the tale! It's really not as scary as it sounds - trust me!



So I have two FO's for 2006 already! Maybe I will be able to keep at least one resolution this year. Now I just have to get to poor Butterfly and my Fair Isle pullover and nothing can stop me! I vow not to buy another ball of yarn until those two sweaters are finished!

Happy Belated 2006!

Whew! I'm finally back online! My network card decided to die on me right before Christmas and I've been too busy to fix it. Finally got over to the store tonight, bought a new card, and fixed the old girl up. She's as good as new (or at least til I buy my new Apple)!

The knitted gift scarves went over very well. My Grandmom couldn't help showing hers off to anyone that came through the door! Luckily knitting two different scarves for my Mom and Aunt didn't set off a bidding war. They are identical twins and sometimes the one wants what the other gets! I'm sure a couple months down the road, they'll be trading off anyway. I guess it's like getting 2 handknit scarves for 1.

I got several knitting related goodies this year:

Niddy Noddy: measures out 1, 1.5, and 2 yds skeins from Grandma and Grandpa



Sweater drying rack, WPI tool, yarn yardage counter, and book from Dad

The Art of Knitting is an excellent, very inspiring book! (Sorry about the blurry photo) It focuses on the construction of knitted fabric, using different yarns to achieve different affects, and thinking outside of the box. It has an awesome collection of inspirational photos side-by-side with beautiful swatches. I highly recommend it for anyone who designs knitwear and it would make a great coffee table book too!


Bag kit from a co-worker

I also got some cold hard cash from Mom, Grandmom, and Aunt to be used for Spinning classes at the Yarn Tree! Next class start March 1st, though I might wait til the weather gets warmer. I hate going anywhere after work in the cold.

I know I said I hoped to have the Log Cabin socks done by the time I came back to NYC on Jan 3rd, and I came close, but not quite:


I did manage to finish one sock - which is amazing since I spent more time watching the Simpsons on DVD during my week off than anything else. Unfortunately, I am not the type of knitter than can watch TV and knit at the same time. Sometimes I wish I was, but then I remember that I hardly watch any TV, so there goes that idea.

Now, my resolutions for 2006 are:

1) To be a bit more aggressive, not let anyone walk all over me at work or otherwise
2) To design more of my own knits
3) To finish all my UFO's before it gets warm again (I have to be able to wear them at least once this year!)

Speaking of finishing up UFO's.....what's this???? An almost completed Lucky #2? Hmmmmm........

Happy Holidays! Strike Over!

So the strike is over and everything has turned to a mad rush for last minute Christmas shopping! Well, at least for people that didn't get out the city earlier! New York was so empty this morning!

I lucked out on Wednesday by working at home. Thursday morning I went back to work, but had to drive around Queens for 30 minutes in the cab trying to get a 4th person so we could get over the bridge to Manhattan! Getting home wasn't a problem this time, my fiance had driven up from Jersey so we just drove home to Queens. Course he was stuck in traffic at 3pm on the Jersey Turnpike when they announced the strike was over.......but hey, better late than never!

But who cares about all that strike stuff......it's time for Christmas!



It's going to be a busy holiday! We have tons of family to see. Both of our parents are divorced, so we have 4 families to fit in! Luckily I took off from work all next week, so I'll have plenty of time to rest (and knit)!

Happy Holidays everyone! I'll see ya guys next year - hopefully with a finished pair of Log Cabin socks!

Hey! Can I Get A Ride?

Fun, fun, fun. That is the way my day went today. Woke up to no subway service in NYC due to the greedy union calling a strike. I mean, I'm all for the workers getting their raises, but when so many people are just trying to get to work to provide for their families and buy Christmas presents - this just totally sucks! I managed to get to work in a minivan with 6 strangers. Luckily it only cost me $10. Left my apartment at 9am, got to work at 11am. Getting home wasn't so easy however. I was planning on taking the LIRR, but that didn't work out. Then I figured I'd just jump in a cab with 3 other people, that didn't work either. So I ended up walking home. So I walked from 39th and Broadway to 31st Ave in Queens. For those of you that are lucky enough to not live in NYC and aren't familiar with the area, that means I had to walk about 5 miles and had to cross the East River via the Queensboro Bridge. And let me tell you, it was not a fun walk when it is 20 degrees outside and you are walking for 2 hours! The last time I had to do this was during the blackout in 2003, and I thought I'd never have to do it again! UGH! I brought work home with me tonight, I am NOT dealing with this again tomorrow. I guess it could have been worse though, it could have been snowing!

And now back to our normally scheduled knitting content:

I started knitting the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays this past weekend. I had the yarn sitting around from my Rowan mag subscription from last year. It was supposed to be a capelet, but it wasn't the best looking capelet, and I'm not really a capelet kinda girl. So the yarn is now socks. Yay socks! Boo MTA and the Union!

Secret Pal 6 Reveal

I received my final package from my wonderful SP Melissa from melknits this weekend. It was filled with tons of wonderful goodies!

I received 4 balls of plymouth baby alpaca brush, 2 balls of sockotta, a pattern for a hat and socks for the sockotta, woolwash, a cute little basket, and some Christmas coffee and tea from starbucks. I'm sure the caffeine will help me stay up to knit "just one more row"!

Here's a detail of the cute little basket! I put a dime in the picture so you could see how small it really is.


Melissa also sent along a little "newsletter" telling me a little about herself and her family. What a creative reveal! Thanks Melissa for everything!

The secret pal I had to spoil was ALSO named Melissa - the hostess called it the "ring around the Melissa's". So as my first SP draws to a close I am so happy that I had a good experience. I didn't exactly know what to expect and now I have made two more knitting buddies - it just happens that both of them are named Melissa!

Blocking Board is Getting All the Love

My blocking board has been getting tons of love lately. I haven't put it away since I brought it back to my apartment a month or so ago!

The Opera scarf is giving the board love tonight. I finished tonight at SnB and it feels good to have one more project off the list.




I think this is going to be my last Christmas knit. I was planning on making my Dad's wife a pair of socks, but it's going to take a bit of work to have them done in time. Plus she started knitting herself a little while back and has only made some novelty yarn scarves. Since she keeps saying that she would like to learn how to knit sweaters, I thought it might be nicer to buy her a beginning sweater book and offer her some lessons. I think she'd appreciate the socks, but I think buying her a book or even some more yarn will be even better. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

So Christmas knitting is officially over! Now I can go back to my regularly scheduled selfish knitting!

Two Down, Two to Go

So I managed to make it back from Minneapolis in one piece! On the way there, I was fine, but on the way home the anxiety kicked in a bit. Luckily my boss offered me her 1st class seat and I had my knitting with me. I was so distraught that I knit a whole repeat on branching out before I realized I dropped 3 stitches on the first row I had started with. But I'm home now and don't think I'll have to go on any more business trips for awhile. It was good to experience a new place, but man was it cold! It was like -6 degrees yesterday! It felt like a heat wave when I got back to NYC - and it was only 34 degrees!

So I managed to finish up Branching Out on the plane and blocked it tonight. I'm so excited to have 2 gifts down and only 2 more to go! The pattern was a lot clearer once it was blocked and I hope it stays that way when being worn.



Today I received my package from Purl with my beautiful Alpaca and Silk from Blue Sky. What great timing. I am doing the Opera Scarf from Blue Sky, which is a free pattern offered on their web site. It seems like a pretty quick knit, so I hope to have it finished by next week if not sooner. I was going to cast on tonight, but I still have to pack to go home to NJ. I am going to Fiona Apple in Philly tomorrow night - I can't wait!


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yummy yarn!

Goodies

Yesterday I picked up my yarn sample book from Habu Textiles. Habu's yarns are absolutely amazing! They have everything from silk and wool to pineapple, copper, silver and steel. I visited their showroom in NYC a couple weeks back when I was doing some research on a top secret project and I was in heaven.



Today I received The Knitting Answer Book from Amazon. I had placed the pre-order ages ago and I thought it was supposed to come out in October, but I guess I was wrong. I've scanned through it very quickly, but I like what I see so far. I strongly suggest adding this to your knitting reference library even if you've been knitting for years. The book is small too, about 4 x 6, so it's even easy to slip into your knitting bag when knitting on the town. Oh and did I mention it's cheap too - only $14.95!



Branching Out is coming along very well. I can't wait to finish! Judging from trying to wrap it around my neck, it's about 3/4 of the way there. I hope to have it done before Wednesday.

I found a very nice free scarf pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca to do for my Grandmom too. I ditched the glove and sock idea - I think she'll get more use out of this. It's made out of their Alpaca/Silk blend and I'm really excited about trying this yarn out.

Monday and Tuesday of next week it's off to Minnesota for Target meetings. Ugh! I almost wish I had gotten it over with the first time. Wish me luck! I'll just pack lots of knitting and hope for the best.

One Down, Three to Go

Finished seaming Backyard Leaves tonight. I hope my mom likes it!



Pattern: Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style
Yarn: 4 balls Karabella Aurora 8

I really enjoyed this pattern. It went fairly quickly and the chart wasn't too hard to master. I'm glad I got to make this one as a gift, I probably wouldn't have made one for myself. I'm more of a stripy scarf kind of girl.

Progress on Branching Out is going well. I'm at repeat 22 and need at least 22 more to make a decent length scarf. I don't want to make it too long though, it's not exactly a "wrap around your neck 3 times and wear out in a blizzard" kind of thing.

Now the problem becomes what to knit next. I'm thinking about making either the Log Cabin Socks (I have yarn already) or making the Vintage Beaded Gloves from Handknit Holidays for my Grandmother. Thing is, she lives in Florida - though she usually visits for at least 3 month during the winter. This one is a tough call. Any suggestions?

Don't Ya Hate It When.......

Don't ya hate it when you are really looking forward to finishing up a certain leafy scarf on the train ride home and end up running out of yarn with only 30 or so rows to go?? I sure do! I was soooooo close to finishing backyard leaves Wednesday night, but a little yarn shortage squashed those dreams. Luckily, I had some half knit legwarmers at home that didn't mind being destroyed:



So I picked the scarf back up tonight and finished up the lousy 30 rows, wet it down and pinned it to the blocking board. Hopefully it will dry overnight and will be ready to be seamed tomorrow.




Thankfully, running out of yarn didn't totally devastate my holiday knitting plans. Since I had planned on finishing BYL on the train ride home, I stuffed my knitting bag with yarn for Branching Out. I've done about 10 repeats so far and am aiming for 4 repeats a day. I'm using Rowan Kidsilk left over from one of my sweater projects. It might be a little thin, but it seems to be working out OK so far, plus this isn't exactly a scarf that my Aunt will be wearing for warmth. I started out with size 8 needles, but the lace seemed too loose so I ripped it all out after a repeat or two. I went down to size 6 needles and it looks a lot nicer now. It's going to need a nice blocking though.



So it's round 2 for the Christmas gifts already so to help me along and keep me motivated, I've joined the Who Wouldn't Love A Handknitted Gift knit-along. Whew! That's a mouthful.