New sweater!

Hi hi!

I finished (and seamed) my Calluna Sweater! Calluna is by Knit Picks. I think I may have a thing for Knit Picks, they are inexpensive, they are convenient. We don't have a LYS in Merced.

So, picture!

Still no buttons, and not blocked. But I am actually doing that tomorrow morning. I am going to use snaps on the closures, and mock buttons on the top. I am very excited that I will be able to wear this sweater at least once before the end of the winter/spring! Hope everyone is having a great begining of March.

Re-knitting.. bleh!

I am working on this really cute little shawl from a mystery Knit Along (from now on known as a KAL). It is called the Evenstar knit along. I have no idea how this thing will look when I am done (because it is a mystery..), and that is fun, but it is also frusterating when you know you have something not quite right and you can't figure out why it isn't working.

I think this KAL really has shown me my weaknesses as a knitter. I rely on the pattern too much, I rely on a picture of the finished project so I know what the hell the thing is supposed to look like.

So I had to knit back on this shawl about 7 rounds because I can't drop lace weight yarn strands and feel good enough about picking up all of those tiny little stitches. Right now it is only about 6 inches across and I have about 160 live stitches going. Ridiculous!

Cool little trick: if you are uncomfortable with a pattern, get to a point you feel may be difficult (or make it a point to do it every 10 rounds, you pick), and thread your yarn needle with dental floss. Then go ahead and thread that floss through every live stitch on your needles. It makes a nice safe place in case you mess up, that you can rip your yarn (gently!) back to. If you chose to use this tip, here is another: mark on your pattern or chart which row you inserted the floss at, so you can fall back to the right point in the pattern! Ok, enough of the wise woman act.

Since this sucker is a mystery, I will post pictures of it when it is done, to honor the creator of the pattern's wishes in her mystery KAL.

Ok back to fighting with yarn smaller then dental floss!

Wraps- or my fight with a sock

Fixed Camera! It wasn't actually broken, you just have to be smarter than the technology.. no the batteries weren't dead. I guess the memory card was not replaced properly in it's slot and so it wouldn't turn on as a safety? Good thing we figured it out before we took it to be fixed!

Anyhoot, wraps. Sometimes for toes of socks, heels of socks, mittens, hats, um.. I can't think where else I have used wraps, I think I used them on a tank top once. Wraps, or wrap and turn is a technique that is used for a process called short row knitting. Short rows are used to make a curve in your knitting, for example, shaping a waist on a sweater, or curving a toe on a sock. Do those examples make sense?

There are a lot of great sites with video tutorials and demos for short row knitting, let me link to stitch diva as an example. That is not what this whole business is about. This is about my fight with a sock- just have to give some back story for those who don't have the context.

Alrighty, so I am knitting this cute pink sock. And it is going along smoothly, I almost have the toe all done. I prefer a short row toe, however I am wrapping the damn stitches incorrectly. I am wrapping my knits like a purl, and my purls like a knit. My mind wasn't in the game. And I wish at that moment I had the camera working because it would have been the perfect picture for "What not to do".

There was all these loops in my short rows. I mean, it wasn't like there would have been a hole in my sock, it would have been like wearing toeless socks, every single toe could have slipped through. I could have started a new summer trend for flip flop wearers.

So I swore. A lot. I ate a lot of chocolate. Then I started over again. This one looks a lot better :) (Gratuitous shot of laundry in background)

Also today I am making slow cooker chicken. I haven't decided if it will turn into chicken soup or if we will just be having roasted chicken for dinner, but it is so easy, so if you don't take advantage of your slow cooker, you should! Only 4 hours on high in the slow cooker, season however you like, I prefer salt, pepper, onion and garlic, just a little rosemary and olive oil. Then if it turns into soup, I just add 6-8 cups vegetable broth to a pot, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 cloves garlic, rough chopped, and mushrooms. Then egg noodles! So either way you are set. Take care.

Broken camera saddness

My camera is out of commission, I cannot show you the cute toe I am working on in pink sock yarn! I can tell you that it is Carnation by Knitpicks. Here is the link to the Fancy Feet sock kit. It is so cute, there are 7 skeins of Stroll sock yarn, one for each day of the week. There is a pattern for a different anklet for eac day of the week! I have opted to start with Tuesday.

The kit is made for toe up knitting, and it is supposed to be for two at a time socks, but I really favor one at a time on double points, that is the way I roll. Hopefully I will be able to get my camera fixed soon and show some progress on here.

It is nice to be back. Tomorrow I get to weigh myself, bleh. I hope I didn't retain water (gain weight) this week. See ya.

Yay!

Hi again. I tried my own advice on seaming, and OMG it works. The project I made for my cousin for Christmas, guys fingerless mitts, took me 2 weeks to do.

The only reason a Five Hour Project took me 2 weeks is because I was unmotivated with all those ugly seams hanging off of it. This weekend I made another set of mitts and they really only took five hours.

So maybe I have found out how to get over another hurdle in my own procrastination- make everything neat. Maybe I need to clean my house..

Screamin' about Seaming

I had a long talk with myself while I was working on a super secret knitting suprise for a friend. I said to myself, "Self, can you think of some things that took us away from knitting in these past few months?"

Self answered back, suprisingly quickly. "Yeah Kendal, you never Seam anything until you are done knitting the item. It makes one project into two projects, and the way you are stressing lately, it is no wonder you aren't finishing anything.. mutter mutter.."

Self has a rude streak. But she is right. I tend to work through a project until it is time to assemble it and then I look with dismay at all the stringy little ends hanging everywhere and I decide it is a good time to alphabetize my cookbooks, or give the dog a bath. Anything but a daunting project. It is funny, it only takes 20 or 30 minutes, but it seems like climbing Mt. Everest.

When I get to the finishing of a project, I want the sense of completion, not a gut twist sensation I am feeling when I finish projects now.

So, I made a little experiment. Self got to be the beautiful assistant. When I finished the first of my two items for my super secret project, Self reminded me to seem right then. So I did, even though I thought matching all the mystery socks in my laundry may be more fun. When I finished wrestling all five dangly pieces of evil yarn into place, I got that sense of completion! I haven't had that in a while. It makes me motivated to start the second piece to this project.

I'll post a picture when I have it done!

OMG Where have I been?

Where have I been? Obviously not blogging. Work has been crazy, and to be quite honest, my knitting has not been inspiring lately. I think that is why I have not been on here lately. I have only completed two sets of fingerless mitts for my cousins, seamed my aunt's socks and fought with a half-finished Calluna Sweater (more on that later, once I find the camera).

On a happy note, I made a resolution to get in shape and have made it half way to my goal already! Pretty good feeling.

I hope everyone is having a good New Year so far.