Monday, February 06, 2006

Oh. Hello!

I'm sorry for being a tardy blogger, it's February already (I'll be thirty soon for the, oh, gazillionsth time) and time is flying. January was fun and crafty all around, one of its highlights being the great knit meet-up I had on MLK day with Angela, where we talked and knit and ohh-ed over cute Japanese craft books for almost 7 hours! It was great and I hope we'll do that again soon Angela, if you can squeeze some crafty time in between your training schedule! Angela also had a hard time talking me into joining the SAL that she, Stephanie and Mari dreamt up. I'll be using this pattern:
SkirtPattern
I forgot to jot down the pattern number but I'll update that soon. The fabric I'm using is this gorgeous light-blue silk/linen/wool blend peeking out underneath the envelope. I'm making skirt B, one color instead of two. Burda patterns are nifty in that they already have the seam allowance included in the pattern, so you draw the pattern outline on the fabric only once. I've been sewing on and off since I've been a teenager and at one time even took an advanced sewing class where I made a lined jacket with bound buttonholes and welt pockets. But I don't remember how to do all that fancy sewing stuff anymore and I'm glad these days if I can manage to put a zipper in a pouch. Also, this is my first -along ever, funny that it's not about knitting.
So on to the knitting. I got rid of the last skein of sock yarn in my stash, that crazy red-blue-green-brown-orange Lana Grossa Meilenweit. Socks are for bf. Sometimes I wonder how outrageous I could get with the sock yarn, where would he draw the line? But I won't find out any time soon, because this is it, people, at least until Christmas. I'm officially socked-out. Don't care to make another pair for the time being. I mean it!
JanuarySocks
I spotted this a couple of weeks ago on the cover of DNR and had to share because it's funny:
InsideOut
A fair isle sweater, sleeves are right side out but the front and back are wrong side out. Reminds me of the Eighties, when we turned our clothes inside out because we couldn't come up with anything else new. Probably not a great idea for my first fair-isle project. Which I've picked, but I won't tell yet, as other stuff needs completing first.
BigWoolTopDown
This Big Wool cardi I've been working on since the beginning of January. You're looking aghast at the ten or something rows I've done? Yeah, me too. First I had to wrap my head around the concept of knitting top down. It is embarrasingly simple, really, unless you happen to be me and to be looking at the Vogue Knitting book. Now that I've got the idea down, I'm having problems increasing at the front edges. This is not going to be a v-neck cardi (oh how easy that would be), but the neck will be rounded and I have to cast on ten or so stitches. Whenever I try that though I get big holes or funny looking stitches, so I know I must be doing something wrong. I have consulted several knitting books without finding anything on how to increase multiple stitches in your knitting. Anyone got a book or website info they could share? I'd be ever so grateful and might actually finish the jacket this month.
The other project I've been obsessing about is this cardi, 'Raindrop' from Rowan's 'Plaid Collection'. I'm using the unravelled Cork that was once a slightly boring half-finished sweater designed by me. Now, even though both Cork and Plaid are similar in gauge, I get 15 sts to 4", while the pattern asks for 11 sts. It calls for 8 skeins, and I have ten skeins of Cork. I want to knit this top down as well because I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn, but the pattern conversion is tricky, what with all the diamonds having to line up at the neck edge. But it's a V! The jacket is straight down but I'll add some waist shaping to it.
I've also had a little jewelry factory going. I had made a very simple gold wire circle necklace for my office secret santa, and a lot of my coworkers liked it so much that they put in multiple orders for one. I didn't get a chance to take a picture yet, but I have one more to make and will photograph it.
Judy asked me how I arranged my photos into a grid pattern for my 2005 FO review. I copied and pasted each photo in Powerpoint and then cropped it. There are probably many easier ways to do it with Photoshop or other programs, but it's what was available to me at the time. Copy and paste are my friends.
Thanks Marie for enlightening me on tracing back comments! Ahh, the craftoholic and the internets. A pair at odds.

9 comments:

MissLucy said...

Lots of interesting projects, and why make it easy when you can make it a challenge!? Re: blogger: I assume you have e-mail notification for your comments? If you do you should be able to click back to your blog from the e-mailed comment, and it will take you to the post in question (that's how mine works anyhow, and it's blogger too)

Anonymous said...

That fair isle sweater is very 80s. Too funny.

I'm afraid I have no help to offer for you sweater issues, but you are smart and I have faith you will figure it out!

Melissa said...

to increase more than one stitch on your knitting you can do either a knitted cast on or a cable cast on. be careful with the cable cast on though, it will give you a very firm edge and that may not be what you are looking for at the neck. the knitted cast on should do.

to do the knitted cast on you knit a stitch as usual, but instead of slipping it off the left hand needle, transfer the stitch you just made on the right hand needle to the left needle. keep doing this until you've increased the desired number of stitches.

hope that helps! you should also be able to google "knitted cast on" or sometimes called "knitted-on cast on" for some demos or pictures.

and just a suggestion for an awesome reference book, The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe is cheap, small, and so worth it!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, the birthday is coming soon... we should celebrate!

Anonymous said...

I'm a little sad to hear you're not going to knit any more socks right now... but I guess knitting has its phases.
THe inside out sweater is weird, isn't it? I've actually seen inside out FI sweater's at H&M last fall, that just freaked me out!

BTW, I decided on making a pair of your Mata Hari socks for my sockapaloooza pal and I have a question- in the pictures I can see you did a picot edge on your own pair- did you use smaller needles to knit the edge? I knit a picot edge with the same size needles as for the cuff and it seems to bend outward and looks a bit bulky. If I knit it with a smaller size needle, do you think it'll turn out too tight?
Greetings from ever-so-rainy Hamburg,
Julia

Lori said...

That inside out sweater is hilarious! can you imagine how much that would snag??

I love your fabric for the sew along. I just signed up... must go fabric shopping... and pattern shopping... yay.

I second the suggestion of the Knitted cast on. I finally figured out how to do it and wondered why I didn't try it before. It is a bit fiddly (especially when I needed 20-ish stitches cast on), but effective.

Anonymous said...

Dude. You are one busy lady! All of the projects are looking awesome. I really love that skirt pattern! I just got a sewing machine for my early Valentine's gift and this weekend will be trying to learn how to use it. I'd love to do a skirt like that! Happy knitting/sewing/crafting/etc!

Krawuggl said...

Hab gerade ein bißchen in deinem Blog gelesen, wunderschöne Sachen machst du! The style and the fabric for the skirt is great! I have now decided not to join the sew-I-knit, I am such a slowly crafter.
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, yours is gorgeous! I especially love the picture-review-2005, marvellous knittings. You are so busy and so this shall be an impulse for me to knit a little faster.
Best wishes,
Suzi

the Lady said...

wow, you must love your bf! look at the size of those feet!
:-)