Stitch, Brinn, Stitch!

KCBW: A Tale of Two Yarns

March 28, 2011 in Uncategorized | Tags: 2kcbwday1, bugga, sanguine gryphon, yarn | 7 comments

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

This is my current collection of the yarn Bugga! by The Sanguine Gryphon. I received it in exchange for knitting two pairs of socks, a pair of knee-highs, a hat, and some fingerless mittens. All in Bugga as well, so I also have the leftover from those projects. I did not pay for any of this yarn (or, I did, but with my time), which is good because I’m pretty sure the total cost of my Bugga collection is more than anything else in my stash.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I. Love. This. Yarn.

It’s soft, squooshy, gorgeous colors, sturdy, machine-washable, and a wonderful ply. It makes AMAZING socks. It also makes great hats. The fabric knit up on 1’s is gloriously thick and sturdy. I FUCKING LOVE THIS YARN. If I had to pick one yarn to knit for the rest of my life, it would be this one. For sure. I want a billion pairs of socks knit in this yarn. As well as 57 hats and 16 sweaters and 9 scarves and 26 pairs of gloves.

Unfortunately, those six skeins are all I’ve got as I can’t really afford more. Sad. Fortunately, I can usually find a WWFY swap that involves Bugga and that makes me happy.

This is another yarn I got through a WWFY swap. It’s JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 4/8, a beautiful dk blend of wool and silk. I’ve never worked with this yarn. I have no idea what it looks like knit up. But oh my damn, I can’t wait to knit it. I also have four skeins of it in purple, which is enough to do exactly nothing with, but it is also gorgeous. Not as pretty as the blue (aptly named Aegean Blue), but still pretty.

I think I’ll knit the blue up as a pair of gloves. The twist is pretty tight (a yarn after my own heart–I love a tight twist), and it’s OH SO SHINY that I think it would hold up well.

Unfortunately, this is another yarn I can’t really afford. Being a poor college student fixing to graduate, the only yarns I can REALLY afford are the ones I can frog from $3 sweater from the thrift store. And I mean, I do find some pretty good stuff that way. My favorites include a bright green lace weight silk/cotton blend and a beige linen/cotton blend. It’s also a really cheap source of 100% wool.

Still. Sometimes you just want the shiny stuff.

Flowers!

March 25, 2011 in life | Tags: flowers, life, photography, pictures, spring | 1 comment

It’s Friday! I have a cold! I’m still working on enormous socks! Here are some pretty pictures of flowers I took today on my way home from class. Spring: It’s here.

And here’s a bonus one of my boy:

Me… Contributed March?

March 23, 2011 in life | Tags: clothes, shopping, what I'm wearing | 1 comment

I like to think of myself as a pretty snappy dresser. I try to look nice most days (though I’m always disappointed when I look nice and feel confident and then don’t see anyone all day). I try to incorporate hand knits and hand-made items into my daily wardrobe and sometimes I more or less successful at it.

I’m pretty pleased with today’s outfit, for example. I occasionally like to photograph the outfits I like best so I can remember them for later. I feel especially good about this one because most of my favorite clothes are in the dirty laundry, so I had to get a little creative:

I love it though! Here’s the breakdown:

Jeans: Old Navy, probably from a thrift store
Tank top: H&M
Shrug: This One from Fitted Knits in Cascade 220 (goodness my hair was shorter and redder then)
Shoes: Guess kitten heels, $3 at a yard sale
Earrings: Rue 21 outlet
Hair: AM SUPER PROUD OF I LOVE HEIDI BRAIDS

Basically the only item I bought from a real store was the tank top, and even then it was in the clearance rack and only $3. Not only is this outfit super cute, it was also super cheap. Yay!

Second Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week!

March 21, 2011 in blog | Tags: 2kcbw, blog, blogging events, knitting | Leave a comment

Followers of the blog for at least a year may remember last year, when I participated in the Knitting and Crochet blog week, set up by Eskimimi Knits and the Blog Hub group on Ravelry. Well, it’s happening again this year, starting a week from today! The topics this year are super interesting, and if you like, you can see them here on Eskimimi’s blog.

During that week, I’ll be posting every day on a variety of topics related to knitting and yarn and the like. If you have a blog, I encourage you to participate too! It’s lots of fun and the tag system and group mean you can meet some new people, bloggers and knitters and increase traffic to your blog. I know I added a couple new blogs to my rss reader thanks to the event last year.

And as for knitting news: I am still working on the enormous Manly Aran socks. I’ve finally finished turning the heel. Yay.

Update

March 17, 2011 in life | Tags: keats, knitting, life, pictures, updates | 1 comment

source

I love this picture. The words are from a poem by TS Eliot called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” I think it’s pretty apropos of my life right now. Worrying about one day at a time.

Sorry there’s no knitting or crafting in this post. I’m still working on those socks from last time (I’m up to the gussets; they’re very large). Things (my life, crafting, everything) should pick up soon and things will get back to normal. I’ll finish these damn socks and then knit another pair. So knitting is happening.

WIP: Manly Aran

March 12, 2011 in knitting, life | Tags: knitting, life, socks, wip, work in progress | Leave a comment

This is going to be something of a short point as I’m currently dealing with some things (someone close to me in in the hospital). I can’t really get into it, but suffice it to say I don’t really have the brain space for anything except sleeping.

I am knitting a little though. I started these socks last week before all of this sort of exploded (before Thursday) and had/have been making pretty good progress. They’re not hard, which is good cause I can’t really do hard right now.

More on the socks later when everything has gotten back to normal.

FO + Free Pattern: Spiffy Spats

March 9, 2011 in knitting | Tags: amknitting, finished object, FO, free pattern, pattern, spats, steampunk | 2 comments

In the time between finishing those knee socks and starting more WWFY socks, I managed to finish knitting a thing for ME ME ME! They are spats:

Pattern: Spiffy Spats, located further down this post and also ravel-able here
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool, about 50g
Needles: US 9/5.5 mm

These spats are great for A. keeping your ankles warm and B. looking awesome while piloting your airship. They are named for my friend Spiffy, who is the most steampunk-eriffic person I know and also likes knitting and ruffles. They come in one size (but the ribbing is quite stretchy) and knit up in just a couple of hours and are SUPER easy to make. They would look awesome in a variety of colors, but I made mine in grey to match things.

You will need:

– About 50g heavy worsted weight/light bulky yarn
– A set of 5.5 mm dpns or a long circular for magic loop
– A stitch marker to mark the beginning of the round
– An iron with a steam setting (trust me on this)

Things you should probably know:

– Knit, purl, increase (kfb), cast on, bind off, knit in the round

Abbreviations:

K: Knit
P: Purl
CO: Cast on
BO: Bind off
KFB: Knit into the front and back of the stitch

SPATS (knit two):

CO 36. Place marker for beginning of round and work in 2×2 rib (knit 2, purl 2) around for each row), slipping the marker as you come to it for 20 rows or until desired length.

Increase row: KFB around.

Continue knitting ruffle: Knit in stockinette (knit every row) for 8 rows or until ruffle reaches desired row.

Work two rows of seed stitch:
row one: k1, p1 around
row two: p1, k1 around

BO in seed stitch.

Finishing: Weave in ends. Block the crap out of the spats (seriously, this step is important to getting them to lie flat). You could wet block too, but unless you were knitting them in mud, steam is sufficient. Sew on cute buttons, rock your spats.

That’s seriously it! I told you they were quick and easy!

The Key to My Heart

March 7, 2011 in jewelry | Tags: earrings, jewelry, keys, necklace | Leave a comment

Yeah yeah yeah. Anyway, I have a thing for keys, especially skeleton keys. There’s something delightful steampunk about them, and I do adore the steampunk aesthetic, even though I can only really pull it off in small doses. But who can disagree with floofy skirts, corsets, and Victorian style? Not me.

I made some key-themed jewelry! My favorite thrift store in Virginia Beach, where my parents live, is a Goodwill Outlet store. Basically, they take everything that hasn’t sold in a couple of weeks (or whatever) in the surrounding Goodwills and dump it in huge bins for people to sift through. They’re separated (roughly) into textiles (clothes, sheets, etc.), books, and everything else, with the larger items elsewhere. While sifting through some of the bins one day, I found a nice little pile of keys, which I promptly swept up given they cost pretty much nothing (the everything else section of the store is like $.65 a pound and keys are light).

Earrings:

I really love how these came out. They went through a couple of different iterations, several not involving the chain, but in the end, I decided to include it. I’m running out of silver chain so I’ll have to pick up some more as I love how it looks in earrings.

Necklace:

The necklace was so easy it barely counts as crafting. I just threw together some jump rings, attached one end to the key and strung the other end on a (cheap-ass) chain.

I’m very pleased with my new set and also very pleased to have done something with some of those keys.

FO: Wicked Witch Stockings

March 5, 2011 in knitting | Tags: finished object, FO, knitting, socks, swap, wwfy | Leave a comment

As promised, this post is about knitting. I finished a thing!

(The recipient has larger feet and calves than me so that’s why they look funny on)

Pattern: Wicked Witch Stockings from the Sanguine Gryphon
Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!
Needles: US 1/sock needle, long circular for magic loop.
Recipient: WWFY person
Mods: I worked the socks top down cause that seems to make socks go by faster. It has to be a set length when I get past the heel and there’s no, “FUCK IT they are TALL ENOUGH” when I get bored.

Despite the Ravelry page for these socks saying they took me just shy of a month, they really felt like they flew by–I knit the second sock in about a week and seeing as one knee-high sock is similar to a pair of regular socks in knitting amount, that’s an accomplishment.

The stripes and calf decreases really made these socks fly–that and the fact that they’re in stockinette so I could knit them while internetting and whatnot. I’m really pleased I have them off the needles now though. I have two more pairs of socks to knit for another WWFY swap (one that I thought had been cancelled until the yarn–shipped in August–arrived with my parents when they came up to visit over winter break) and then I am FREE FREE FREE to knit for myself.

Seriously, I can’t wait.

A Cooking Thing!

March 1, 2011 in cooking | Tags: breakfast, chocolate, cooking, crepes, life, nutella | Leave a comment

As I have probably mentioned before, I’m not very good at cooking. There’s not a lot of stuff I know how to make and if I do cook, I like to have a recipe to follow to the letter. Today for breakfast I made a thing that was completely delicious and completely amazing, following a recipe (mostly).

(I’m really proud of the strawberry garnish on top. Don’t judge me.)

I made crepes! As I’ve mentioned, I am currently on spring break. This means my allergic-to-nuts boyfriend is out of town and thus my diet is roughly 90% nutella. I was running out of things to eat it on (as I thought it would possibly be bad for me to eat it with a spoon) so I did a little googling and found this recipe. I used the basic crepe recipe, then filled them with nutella and strawberries (in two of them) and blackberry jam and strawberries (the last one).

I accidentally made the crepes a little thick so the recipe yielded four crepes, one of which is in the freezer and I might eat it tomorrow or Thursday. They came out super delicious and amazing and now I want to eat various forms of crepes for every meal. Or at least several of them. Like breakfast tomorrow with eggs and cheese and bell peppers and hot sauce. YUM. Possibly I’ll just use a tortilla.

I’m sure there are some among you that are like, “Pfft, crepes, whatever. Last night I made a six course meal for just myself IN AN HOUR.” Like I said, I don’t cook. So this is like HOLY SHIT AMAZING for me. I’m super proud of it.

Knitting content to continue next time. Probably.