Stitch, Brinn, Stitch!

Still Wip'n Along

September 19, 2009 in knitting, spinning | Tags: knitting, spinning, sweater, wip, wool, yarn | Leave a comment

So I’m still truckin’ on the Watermelon cardigan. It looks like this now:

Why yes, I do knit like a fiend. I tried it on, and thought it’s a bit smaller than I would have liked, it’s super comfy and fantastic. I hope to have it done this weekend (but who knows if that will happen).

I’ve also off and on been working on a spinning project:

That would be an ounce of random wool I got with the spindle I’m spinning it on. It’s probably going to stay a single, and I’ll make some sort of cowl or something with it. Only sort of related: light-fingering weight yarn spins up SO SLOWLY on a spindle. I want a wheel. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to put it, so for right now, I’m delegated to spindling.

Speaking of spindles: I want a lighter one for spinning lace-weight. Any suggestions? I want a fairly inexpensive one because A, I’m cheap as hell and B, I’m a poor college student that just spent $60 on yarn from WEBS.

WIP'in Along

September 13, 2009 in knitting | Tags: cotton, knitting, sweater, watermelon, wip, yarn | Leave a comment

I am obsessed with things that look like watermelons. I love the combination of green and pink, and I love when objects have that color combination. LOVE. So when I saw this while browsing around the Ravelry forums, I knew I had to have it (non-Rav link; to issue one of Petite Purls). Sized up to fit me, of course.

I bookmarked that just about when the pattern came out, though, which was several months ago. Seeing as I really should knit up the projects I have planned before I buy more yarn (college student budget and all that), it sort of fell by the wayside, despite how much I wanted to knit a tank top like that.

And then, last weekend, while happening past the local yarn store in Fredericksburg, Knitter’s Cottage, I noticed they were having a sale. So of course I went in. And found Serendipity Tweed on sale for six bucks a skein, so of course I bought three, two of green and one of red. And then, noticing I had a total of like 600 yards of yarn that I could knit on eights for a nice, drapy fabric, I realized I could knit a whole cardigan! I scoured Ravelry for inspiration, wanting (mostly) to knit something with raglan sleeves (because I haaaaaaate set-in sleeves). And then I found this cute little sweater.

So here’s what I’ve been working on:

The cotton/wool blend will be perfect for the last warm days of fall before it slides into winter (and, of course, it will be amazing for spring). And I finished my super secret knitting project, so for right now, it’s all Watermelon all the time. Probably it won’t take me a whole lot longer to do since I have plenty of knitting time in several of my discussion-based classes.

Next up on the needles is going to be a wool sweater for which I need to order another skein of yarn (Cascade Eco Wool, which I’m getting from WEBS along with Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles and some various other things, probably some Valley Northampton for a sweater and some Huntington sock yarn for some argyle socks). There’s still the inchies swap to be posted (one set was sent to my house instead of to me at school, so I’m waiting until it gets sent here to post). There’s also the super secret project, but that won’t get posted until December. But you will see it eventually, I promise! Stay tuned!

Beatles Swap, part Deux

September 10, 2009 in paper craft, sewing, swap | Tags: Beatles, cards, note cards, notebook, paper craft, sewing, swap | Leave a comment

The second part of my Beatles swap is here at last! I finally got time to craft for the swap, and I am incredibly thrilled with that I came up with. Since there were an odd number of people in the swap, there were three of us in a round-robin sort of partnership. Here’s what I sent to SwampOlympics

This sweet bag, made from a t-shirt and Barney bedsheet and also some canvas-ish fabric for handles. A little puckery in the sides because I’m completely impatient when it comes to sewing, but it still came out nice. Once I remembered how to sew the straps on properly. : )

This FUCKIN’ SWEET little notebook. It’s made from a pad of Post Its, some cardboard, and embellishments. The background is from a book in German (which I thought was fitting because they did record a couple of songs in German), and I am SO FREAKIN’ PROUD of the submarine. I looked up the album art for the Yellow Submarine and basically copied what I saw using some scrapbook paper, white printer paper, and the measly collection of colored pens that I have (basically just red, blue, and black. I miss my sharpies). If I had any use for notebooks, I would have made one for myself too, but I don’t, so it’s been sent off.

And a collection of notecards, which is sort of my fallback craft for swaps. I love making them though, so I am totally okay with any opportunity to do so. I am particularly a fan of “All you need is love”, but I love them all. I thought the “Here comes the sun” one would be perfect for a get well soon card, and “I want to hold your hand” (which says “PS I love you” on the inside) would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, or just to tell someone “I love you” or “I miss you”. I also wanted to try my hand at a slightly larger submarine. I will probably make some more in a similar set, or at least using song lyrics, because they’re perfect for non-specific sentiments.

The rest of the swap gallery can be found here on Craftster if you want to check out more Beatles-inspired crafts.

Coming soon(ish): Inchies. A knitting wip. Eventually a spinning FO (or maybe just a wip). Stuff. Things. Crafting is happening!

Post Secret, Round Two

September 7, 2009 in paper craft, swap | Tags: art, paper craft, post secret, secrets, swap | Leave a comment

Well, round two for me. It’s actually round ten of the swap over on Craftster. Thankfully, this time I was not the organizer, so I got to kick back, mail my secrets at my leisure and see what happens. Here are the secrets I got:

After a huge fight with my best friend, I wished she could never have children. She wanted them more than anything. A few years later, she had a molar pregnancy that developed into cancer–which eventually killed her. We made up before she died, and I never told her what I had wished. I’ve never forgiven myself…. And I miss her so much.

I hate when my mom uses hott guys to get me to go to church.

Back:

I am agnostic and I just wish she would accept it instead of taking advantage of how desperate I am for a guy.

I suck. So bad. At flossing. I should only be allowed to have 4 teeth. (Middle) Start flossing! You’re an adult!

I burned my butt! (Back) Thankfully, it is NOT as red as this card. *tear* It itches!

Sometimes I don’t think I’m cut out to be a mom.

The rest of the gallery is here

In other crafting news, I finished the Beatles swap, so when it gets there, I’ll post it. I’m waiting on one more set of inchies before I can post that swap. The super secret knitting is almost done, but I can’t show you that until December because the recipient sometimes checks the blog. : ) I started a new project though, so perhaps I’ll have a wip photo and some info about that at some point. Stay tuned!

Two for the Price of One

August 31, 2009 in knitting, spinning | Tags: acrylic yarn, calorimetry, cold weather things, FO, handspun, headband, knitting, pillow, spinning, wool, yarn | Leave a comment

FO’s, that is. One I finished rather a while ago, and the other is something I whipped up during a movie because my current project was too complicated for movie knitting.

Pattern: None, just a chart of a design I made up.
Yarn: Random scraps of acrylic yarn
Needles: US 8/5 mm I think

This was a present for my friend Sarah, whose birthday was in early June. I spent a week frantically knitting it and sent it off to her in time for her birthday, but I forgot to snap a picture. Fortunately, she is my roommate at school this year, so I snapped one for Ravelry and for the blog.

Pattern: Calorimetry
Yarn: My handspun!
Needles: US 8/5mm straights
Mods: Cast on 88, did far fewer row 5 repeats

My first FO with my handspun!

This pattern is perfect for just a little bit of yarn, which is exactly what I had. I actually have a fair amount of yarn left over, though I’m not sure what to do with it. Perhaps it can be a stripe on a crazy handspun hat. The barber-poling of the colors looks great, but kind of obscures the ribbing. I don’t really care though; it still looks awesome. And I made it! From wool to yarn to dyed yarn to FO. : ) I will definitely be getting a lot of wear out of it come winter because it’ll add a bright splash of color to my winter wardrobe and so I can brag that I made both the Calorimetry and the yarn itself. WIN.

Coming soon to a blog near you: Inchies. Beatles things (part of which is SO FUCKIN’ COOL I can’t stand it), and more knitting. I started an awesome cardigan and scrapped a project I’d been working on for a few days (it just wasn’t working out). Stay tuned!

FO: Trigger Finger

August 28, 2009 in knitting | Tags: brown, cold weather things, FO, knitting, mittens, wool, yarn | 1 comment

Pattern: My own, based on the idea for Soft Mit-Gloves. I wanted to make them but didn’t have/want to knit with sport weight yarn, so I improvised based on my tried and true mitten method.
Yarn: Lion Wool, almost certainly less than a skein.
Needles: US 6/4 mm nickle plated dpns.

I’d been thinking for a while about what to make my friend Jon for his birthday, and after much browsing on Ravelry, I found the Cigarette gloves mentioned above and knew they would be perfect. A while back, I made Jon some fingerless mitts for him to wear at the shooting range to keep his hands warm in the cold Pennsylvania winters. I thought a nice pair of wool mittens would do the trick nicely. This way, his index finger is free to pull the trigger, and the other fingers stay nice and warm, nestled in the mitten side. The left one is just a regular mitten cause you don’t need individual fingers on that hand.

Increasingly, I’m finding that worsted weight is a little too thick and awkward for mittens and gloves. I think these will work just fine, but in the future, I think I may have to reduce the weight of yarn I use for this sort of thing, or at least use yarn with more drape. A tighter gauge might also help, much as I dislike knitting at tight gauges.

Coming soon: inchies. More Beatles. Post Secret. Other knitting things. Stay tuned!

Beatles Swap

August 24, 2009 in swap, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FINALLY got a moment to snap some pictures and write a blog post, so post one of five different swap posts is happening RIGHT NOW for the Beatles-themed swap I joined. In this post, there will be the things I got from my partner (well, it was sort of round robin). Here’s what crazyda79 sent me:

This sweet magnet, which is on my fridge.

Paul’s song writing pen. : )

A cool picture frame. I need to obtain a picture for it though.

This TOTALLY SWEET painting which is residing above a drawer unit, on display.

And this AWESOME BAG. Of course it was actually signed by the Beatles. : )

My projects won’t be showing up for a while, mostly because I’ve been hella busy, but you will certainly see when I get it all together. Plus two other swaps and some knitting. Classes started today, affording me lots of knitting time in class. Plus I actually have fewer obligations. Plus I can knit and read at the same time. : ) Stay tuned.

A Little Space

August 18, 2009 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

No craft projects to show in this post, I’m afraid, but I wanted to check in to say that I’ve officially moved back to Fredericksburg, crammed all my things in a tiny little dorm room and am currently going through the crazy week of orientation. It’s my second year of school, but I’m an orientation leader, which means that this entire week I have been and will be hella busy.

Which means there will be no pretty craft projects until at least next week. I’ll have stuff from a Beatles-themed swap, a whole bunch of inchies, and maybe some Post Secret cards. There’s also some super secret knitting projects that will show up every so often.

But not til next week. So you’ll just have to hold on til then.

FO: Shorts

August 14, 2009 in knitting | Tags: blue, cotton, FO, knitting, shorts, yarn | 1 comment

Pattern: Studio Shorts available on Ravelry here.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in Marlin, about two skeins
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options and 16″ circ
Mods: Went up a needle size cause the sevens were closer and I knit fairly tightly. Left out the huge increase row because my thighs are not half the size of my hips and instead increased about five stitches around the back to accommodate my ass. Skipped the short rows in the front. Probably added extra short rows in the back.

These actually went by quite rapidly once I got the right amount of stitches around the hips, and I think I would definitely make these again. It’s so hard to find shorts that fit, and once I got a drawstring in these, the fit is perfect. And they’re sooooo comfortable. I love Knit Picks Comfy. It feels like kittens on my thighs. : ) I think I would decrease right before the ribbing. The ribbing on the waist isn’t really stretchy at all, and I think a smaller circumference would help that.

I’m extremely pleased with these though. The pattern is staying on my queue.

In other knitting new: super secret project is coming right along. Started another secret project (but probably only secret til next week or so since I’ll be giving them to the recipient then). Unfortunately, super secret projects are really all I’m knitting lately.

Fortunately, my partner for one of my swaps has already sent, so I’ll be showing you that by mid-next week ish. I’ve also been working on my inchies, and I’ll be ready to send out soon. Plus there’s a Post Secret swap (which I am thankfully not organizing). I love swapping, and I’m sure readers are fond of them since they provide tons of blog content. Stay tuned!

A Mistake of Rather Large Proportions

August 10, 2009 in knitting | Tags: blue, cotton, garments, knitting, shorts, wip, yarn | Leave a comment

So, I don’t know if you can tell from previous pictures I’ve posted on this here blog of mine, but I weigh about 110 pounds, sopping wet. I’m a tiny little person. So I’m not sure what I was thinking when I blindly followed the directions in my shorts to k1, Kfb around the circumference after I joined the legs. This is what I got:

Yeah. Those are not going to fit. The legs fit perfectly, but there is literally a foot of extra space at the hips.

I though about giving up and moving on to other things. But when I tried them on, the yarn felt so soft and lovely on my legs that I decided to take the plunge and frog back to the join and reknit them, this time without the huge increase row. At this point, I’ve reknit back up to the waist ribbing, which took half the time as before because the rounds are half the size. I’ve had to add more short rows, but I think the size now is just about perfect.