First up is my sockapaloooza second attempt:
Here is my progress on Glimmer:
ShannonG, who is knitting Glimmer for the Olympics, asked about how I made the picot stitches. The pattern is quite vague about the picot edging stating "cast on 2, cast off 2." I can see how this can be interpreted in many ways. For me, I cast on 2 stitches using the backward loop cast on method (that link illustrates the method the same way I do it although the pics are a bit blurry). Then I immediately bound them off and knit the rest of the row normally. This is how it looks:
That's all for me until Wednesday when I upload the new
look for the blog!
February 24, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 14:
I did start knitting on Glimmer, I couldn't help it!
And in super exciting news... Expect a brand new look
to kim's knitting world at the beginning of March!
February 22, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 12:
Three more sheep whites to go and the blanket is nearly finished.
The hardest part is the last part... sewing fabric onto the back.
The knitting of the blanket, while the longest part, was the most enjoyable
part. The sheepifying is not very hard, but I really don't enjoy
it. I find all the duplicate stitching tedious and boring, it has
been a fight every evening to do 1 more sheep. My reward for completing
a sheep goal has been working on the ugliest sock ever:
This yarn was originally supposed to be for my sockapaloooza socks.
It has many of the colors my pal likes and in the skein looked pretty.
I started knitting this on Saturday as a reward/break from the blanket
and have been working on it each night as a reward for sheepifying.
The more I knit it, the uglier and uglier it became. My sock pal's
and my foot are not the same size, so I had to stop at the appropriate
size for my foot before the heel and make a decision... would I feel happy
sending this to someone else? I decided no, it is just too ugly.
So it will now be socks for me because I don't care much about what I put
on my own feet. (Also factored into this decision was the knowledge
that Kevin's mom is coming for a visit and that means on Friday while Kevin
is in a meeting we are going yarn shopping, so I can get something better
for my sock pal). I did a cool short-row toe to start this sock (after
a conversation with Cordelia and Marian about the best way to start a toe
up sock). I'll elaborate on it in a few days when I have time to
sit down and figure out how to write about what I did.
I now have even more motivation to hurry up and get Sheepy out of the way. Look what I picked up at the post office:
Nice pretty white boxes. What's inside the boxes?!
Pretty wrapping!!
The packaging of these kits is so beautiful, I almost don't want to
wind the yarn and knit it (the key is almost).
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 11:
Things on my To Do list: class work, dissertation proposal writing, knitting (well, sheepifying), eating, sleeping, blogging
Guess which gets nearly eliminated until number 2 is finished...
February 19, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 8 and 9:
According to the Yarn
Harlot's countdown, there are 6 days left. That's about 2 1/3
sheep per day. Oh, wait, that doesn't leave time for adding the cloth
backing, which I don't even know that I have. Hmmm, and looking at
the calendar, there will be very little time for Sheepy at the end of the
week. Ok. Goal... 4-5 sheep a day... sheep should be finished
by Wednesday.
February 17, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 7:
If you don't follow these suggestions and if you decide
to do other fucktarded maneuvers while driving that nearly cause injury
to me and my car, I WILL NOT feel bad about hoping that you drive into
a tree up the road and destroy your car.
Three near death driving experiences in one day is enough
justification, I think, for curling up on the couch and knitting for the
rest of the day. Can I finish the knitting of Sheepy by midnight
tonight?
Comments (randomly)... Thanks for the link to Sexie! I love seeing finished ones.
The Cash Iroha color in the second picture is more true to real life. The flower is from
Knitting over the Edge, and was a pain in the ass to knit! Since it isn't giving the pattern
away (too much), if I made another one instead of the written pattern, I would cast on 80 sts, k2tog all the way across every
knit row down to 10 stitches (simply purling WS normally) and cast off. I'm very excited about these kits from Kim
Hargreaves. Right after ShannonG's comment, I got an email from a very nice lady at
Kim Hargreaves letting me know that my package was on its way and to email her to let
her know if it arrives safe and sound. How nice!
February 16, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 6:
I had to take a break from the Sheepy for a bit last night. It is starting to get to the size where it is getting heavy and my hands were starting to hurt. So I switched to finishing off my Cash Iroha scarf...
Yuck, crappy picture.
I attached a rose at the end to jazz it up a little. When I'm
feeling less snotty, I'll try to remember to get a picture wearing it.
Wow! Thanks for all of the encouragement. I feel like those cross-country skiers who come out of the woods into the cheering crowd and get re-engerized! Sheepy is now half way finished in the knitting portion of the performance. I think I mentioned this when I made the first one, but I'd recommend this pattern to anyone. It is easily memorizable and there's enough going on that you are kept interested on each row. I was mentioning to Kevin last night, that I wonder how big the blanket would be if I made it out of Encore Chunky or Mega. Hmmm... I might need to think about this for Sheepy 3. (Oh, I haven't fixed the boo-boo, and I'm certainly not ripping, but I have a plan for fixing it once I finish the knitting)
Kevin made me a wonderful Valentine's Day dinner. We normally don't make a big deal about it because the whole card/gift/jewelry thing is consumeristic crap. He did get me these though...
The other day I placed an order for 2 kits from Kim Hargreaves.
This one will be for my mom and I ordered it in a tan color.
Once Olympic knitting is finished, I'll need y'all to cheer me on on this
one which needs to be finished by mid-March!
Ok, I need to work work work today so that I can knit
knit knit tonight!!
February 14, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 4:
"But wait! What's this?! Oh, the judges will
have to deduct points for this."
kim: Crap!
February 13, 2006
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 3:
And as promised, a picture of Cash Iroha in progress.
We got about 14 inches of snow here, and while we didn't make it to the basketball game (they played the game, but there was no way we were driving over there), we did have some fun...
Self-portrait. How many knitted items am I wearing? Hat
(Newsboy Cap from Stitch n' Bitch), scarf (my very first project), i-cord
Regia gloves, sockapalooza socks. Hmmm... only 4. That number
should have been higher.
.
Let's make our own snowstorm! How many knitted items is Kevin
wearing? Hat, gloves. Hmm... only 2. He should be wearing
his knitted socks and scarf.
Yeah, the snow in most places was nearly to my knees. I've taken
pictures of several knitted items on this bench. (Oh, and I'm actually
holding my coat closed because it was unzipped because I was hiding my
camera in there between pictures so it wouldn't get too wet.)
Me and my brother! How many knitted items is Kim's brother wearing?
Hat (custom-made Rutgers hat, which I don't think I ever showed a picture
of because it was made and gifted during my hiatus over x-mas). Hmmm...
he needs more knitted items.
You'll poke your eye out!
Actually, I was busy Friday hanging out with my dad and brother in the afternoon (my bro is spending the weekend to go see a Rutgers basketball game on Sunday, which it is looking less and less likely because of the vast quantities of snow falling from the sky). I did manage to finish these though...
Yay for new socks!! But wow, knee highs are boring to knit!
Olympic Knitting Update, Day 2:
I did switch in the Cash Iroha scarf for a bit while watching "40 year old Virgin" because I hadn't seen the movie before.
Ok, I've got knitting to do before I sleep!
February 9, 2006
In an effort to be prepared for the Knitting Olympics,
I've been trying to finish up some of my current projects. My knitting
time Tuesday was devoted to finishing the piece that will become a felted
circular needle case.
The yellow and red will be for the circular needle case and the pink
and blue will be for the straight needle case. Do you notice something
different about them other than the colors?! The pink and blue was
knit in Montera which is what the pattern called for. The yellow
and red is knit with Lopi for which I had to go up several needle sizes
from the pattern and in a moment of not thinking still cast on the same
number of stitches. It isn't a big deal because it isn't something
that has to fit like a sweater, but damn, that's going to be a bitch to
felt.
Because I was feeling uninspired to felt these by hand and because I needed to stop at the pharmacy which is right next to the laundry mat, I decided to give machine felting a try.
As you can (hopefully) see, the washing machine made the pieces fluffier,
but not felted. If I had the time and money to run these through
another 5-6 times, they probably would have turned out nicely. But,
I'm not spending $12 to felt some knitting. So it is back to hand
felting for me.
Also to be finished up by tomorrow... purple kneehigh sock. I'm so bored with knitting this sock (why did I decide on kneehighs?!), but it will be finished tonight! I have about 60 more rows to knit. That leaves Tubey, which will not be finished before the knitting Olympics. Having left it untouched for over a week now, I'm not sure how in love with it I am. So Tubey will sit until after the knitting Olympics and be re-evaluated.
Oh, and in complete knitting disclosure, I couldn't resist
the Cash Iroha anymore last night, so I cast on for a scarf. And
get this... I'm doing a seed stitch scarf! Long-time readers are
probably gasping right now. I know, I know, I've said many times
here how much I hate and detest seed stitch, but... I can't explain it,
it works in the Cash Iroha and it looks beautiful and I can't stop knitting
it!! (Pictures soon!)
February 7, 2006
Self-Portrait
Tuesday
.
8:30am-Alarm goes off. Curse at the world.
8:33am-Crawl out of bed. Run shower for one minute. (I've discovered
that if you run the shower for about a minute and wait about 10-30 minutes
it will stay hot for an entire shower)
8:34am-Turn heat on downstairs, grab a blanket and check email and
blogs
9:02am-Take shower, get dressed, dry hair
9:43am-Drive to office
9:47am-Annoyed by driving through police/DMV checkpoint
9:55am-Arrive at office, check mail, open box and find unwanted textbooks
inside
10:00am-11:40am-Finish lecture for Tuesday, finish picking/writing
questions for exam on Thursday
11:41am-Interurpted by textbook rep for a chat
11:55am-Leave for lunch with the dissertation gals (we've formed a
little support group)
12:00pm-2:00pm-Yum! Lunch (although I ate a gyro with onions, not smart!)
2:03pm-3:16pm-Formatting exam and cursing at Microsoft word for not
cooperating (cursing onions as well)
3:17pm-Run to psych office to make copies of syllabus for Teaching
Effectivenessclass (grad students have taken over this class that is supposed
to teach new gradstudents how to teach, today we presented "how to develop
a course"), copies of
sweater pattern for knitting class, and copies of exams for TA and
self
3:33pm-Grab projector from psych secretaries for Teaching Effectiveness
class, run back to office and grab rest of things and drive to other campus
for TE class (still cursing onions)
4:00pm-5:14pm-Teaching Effectiveness class, blather about something
or other (ugh! the onions)
5:17pm-Drive to 3rd campus of the day for knitting class
5:25pm-5:30pm-Spend very annoyed 5 minutes trying to locate roster
for class at the Gym and find someone to unlock the classroom
5:31pm-5:46pm-Frantically try to finish Power Point for Tuesday's class
before knitting students come
5:47pm-7:30pm-Knitting class... much fun, good students (and still
feeling the onions)
7:34pm-Drive home to pick up Kevin to go grocery shopping
8:00pm-9:12pm-Shopping at Wegman's
9:13pm-Unloading groceries, then eating dinner
9:46pm-Resume trying to finish Power Point, interurpted by revenge
of the onions
11:00pm-Watch Daily Show, Colbert Report, pass out!
Look at the shells for sinks!!
And the reason I was in the bathroom was to wash out my monkey glass!
The mixed drinks were expensive, but you did get to keep the ceramic cup
that your drink came in and there were all sorts. Kevin's little
bro ended up with a panda, and mine is a monkey (the drink was a horny
monkey! hahahaha!)
Thursday: Slept a lot, ate too much food, visited a yarn store (yay!), bowled, watched Kevin's little bro in a hockey game. In the afternoon, Kevin and his friend were nice enough to take me to Pittsburgh Knit and Bead. The store was nice, but very small and not much yarn (a lot of beads though). The owner (or employee) was nice, but overly helpful. You know when you are in a knitting store purchasing yarn, you don't want the person at the cash register telling you how you should use the yarn and reminding you that the one sock yarn you are purchasing is thicker than the other, so you can't cast on the same amount of stitches or else the sock will be huge, blah blah blah. I understand being helpful, but I'm not an idiot. So the goods...
Regia sock yarn for my Sockapaloooza pal.
Trampoline for socks for me. I've never used (or even seen) this
sock yarn before. I like the leopardy colors.
Can you guess? It is Noro Cash Iroha! Silk, wool, cashmere,
and nylon. Ooooohh so soft!! I'm thinking a nice little scarf.
(For which the cashier lady scolded me that 180 yds wouldn't be enough
for a scarf. Meh! She doesn't know my plans!)
Me bowling!
Kevin bowling!
Kevin's friend kicking our butts!
Friday: Some sleeping, watching some horrible Backyard Wrestling videos (don't ask why), more eating, more bar hopping. I wish I had taken some pictures of the craziness of everyone walking around in their Steelers gear yelling and chanting in the streets!
Saturday: Drove home.
Sunday: Super Bowl! (Oh, and I actually drove in the city!! Yeah me!)
Ok, so I think we're all caught up. Hopefully tomorrow,
I can post a proper knitting post. As the knitting Olympics are looming,
I have a lot of projects to finish up in 3 days. And a special "hi"
to new commenters Sheilah
and Dipsy
D.!
February 5, 2006
New yarn!!
Kevin and I went out to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to help his little brother celebrate his 21st b-day. We got back yesterday evening and now we're off to a Super Bowl party. Tomorrow is going to be a loooooooooooooong day, I'll try to find some time to post about our adventures!