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As promised, here is an FO post!
Pattern: They’re toe-up socks. Short-row heel.
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll, Shoreline Twist (blue and brown)
Needles: US 1
There isn’t a tremendous amount to say about these socks. They fit pretty well and used surprisingly little yarn–I have about 40g left over, which is enough to make an entire pair of anklets at least. This is possibly because I didn’t make them as tall as I could have, but there comes a point where I get tired of knitting the legs of socks and decide they’re done. This is why I should knit socks cuff down–In the beginning of the socks, my knitting mojo isn’t spent knitting the foot and I can knit plain round rows longer. Then there’s the heel (fun) and then the foot has to be so long so my foot fits in it–there’s no halfway.
So that’s my sock philosophy, so to speak. Plus I haven’t quite figured out the toe-up flap/gusset heel, which I think fits a lot better than the short row heel I put into toe-up socks. Clearly I need to make more of Wendy Johnson’s patterns, which are usually toe-up and include a flap heel.
I’ve just recently started another pair of plain socks, this time cuff-down. More on that later. And in case you were wondering, I’ve made it to DC and to my boyfriend’s and have successfully packed most of the things away in my house in Virginia Beach. Still have to find a job and an apartment so I can get the hell out of dodge, but I’m working on that. Sort of. : )
Hey everyone, Nessa interviewed me over at Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts. Go check it out! I’ll be back with an FO post later today.
Let me tell you guys, I am having a hell of a week. I’ve been out of college for less than a week and I have a ton of stuff to get rid of, to put away until I move out of my house, and a job to find PLUS I came back to Virginia Beach to find I had jury duty for June despite that I have no car, the court house is on the other side of town, and I’m planning to move out sometime in June. So yeah. It’s been a hell of a week.
Anyway, I’m going back out of town on Saturday (back up to DC where my boyfriend lives to look for apartments and jobs and other stuff), so I have to get everything out of the cars and the living room and into the attic and my bedroom PLUS pack for my week or two out of town.
All this to say (besides that like, I like to tell you guys about my life) that I have been doing some very very simple knitting:
Just a pair of vanilla socks in Knit Picks Stroll (blue and brown, like Ravenclaw colors). Nice and simple so I don’t kill anyone while I’m doing all of my packing and stuff. I also frogged the chunky cashmere sweater but I have to rewash the yarn, so I can’t use it yet. It is nice though. I think it’ll be a scarf or something.
Anyway, I’ll be back in a couple of days with an update if I haven’t been crushed by all of my stuff.
I do. I so win at thrift. I went to a thrift store near my house with my grandparents today (they’re in town after my graduation) and I TOTALLY SCORED. SCORED. I found five sweaters total, all for $2 (one was only a dollar):
Two to felt (cashmere! I’m going to make a lovely light blanket when I get enough sweaters)
And three to frog:
From top to bottom: Old Navy cotton/wool, worsted/bulky weight (this is the $1 one), a probably fingering weight nylon/viscose/angora/cashmere blend (probably will be a lightweight sweater for me) and the coup de grace, a worsted weight CASHMERE sweater. I found bulky cashmere! It exists! I’m so excited to work with it. The three froggable sweaters are currently soaking and I’m just going to machine wash the other two.
I also found some cute shoes for $4:
Not sure what kind of socks I’m supposed to wear with these (suppose it doesn’t matter if wear them under pants). Yay, thrift store!
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS, I GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!
And Joe did too. Back to yarn stuff tomorrow.
So I have finished up a couple of knitted things this week because, like I said, it’s dead week/senior week, so all the soon-to-be graduates are chilling on campus for a week before graduation, partying, sleeping in, and generally laying about. I have been knitting, my boyfriend Joe has been putting together a self-published album of his orchestral/piano compositions (he’s good; I promise) and together we’ve been watching Stargate: Atlantis on Netflix (which is delightful, by the way. We’re about halfway into season two and I LOVE IT).
Anyway, during the many episode of SGA we’ve been watching, I’ve gotten a lot of knitting done. Like the shorter version of my Leah vest.
Pattern: Leah, which I am currently working on writing up.
Yarn: Reynold’s Tiara, three skeins I’ve had as long as I’ve been crocheting (ie, a long damn time), probably from a yard sale or something.
Needles: US 6/4 mm
So guys? I TOTALLY LOVE THIS VEST. I really didn’t think I would care for the cropped version but OMG it is so cute. It looks great over blouses and I think it’ll look good over some dresses and t-shirts too. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The points came out exactly how I wanted (just under the bust) and the neckline is perfect. I originally tried to put in too many buttons/button holes but when I reduced them from five to three, it came out perfectly. Seriously LOVE.
Also the photo shoot was fun. My camera guy (Joe) is great and I love him.
As for the yarn: It was just a bit thinner than I would have liked. Ravelry says worsted, but it’s more like a dk. Anyway, it’s discontinued, so I won’t be recommending it for the pattern (probably I’ll just say a cotton or rayon blend worsted weight). Tiara is rayon and silk and the rayon was very splitty and the silk very pilly. The finished vest is quite pretty, but I wouldn’t recommend this yarn to anyone, especially if it’s been sitting on the bottom of your yarn bin for several years. It is a pretty color though and I did use up just about all of it, so it’s out of my stash.
I believe I mentioned before I was working on a cotton summer hat — I’ve finished that too and will have some details/pictures in the next post. Suffice it to say that it’s awesome and basically the best hat ever. That post will not be tomorrow as tonight is Cinco de Mayo and I will be drinking tequila. Yes.
It’s finals week! Boo! I had two finals today and I have one on Wednesday and two on Thursday, plus a final paper due on Thursday. Basically, this week is full of the suck. The finals I had today were Women in Opera and What is Time?, the latter of which is relevant to this blog.
Basically, the final was to create a project that was interactive/could be experienced in some way and explored the concepts of time we discussed in the class (the class being exactly what it says on the tin). Being the knitterly sort, I chose to involve knitting in my project. I knit a hat, photographed it along the way, and strung the photos together into a stop-motion video. This is the hat I made:
Pattern: Aaron’s Hat
Yarn: Paton’s Rumor
Needles: US 8/5 mm
I steamed the hat as it came out a little short (and Rumor is mostly acrylic with a touch of alpaca). It turned out pretty well and will either go into the gift pile or warm my head next winter. One of those. Rumor, incidentally, is a metric fuckton softer than the similar blend Bernat Alpaca blend, which is scratchy and full of guard hairs. Rumor is nice and soft, though it did shed everywhere.
Sorry for the quality of the photos in the video; I had to take a lot of them. Here is my finished product:
The numbers:
I took a photo after every dpn (4 per round)
The hat has 36 rounds.
That’s 144 photos total (plus extras when the photos were blurry or my camera strap got in the way)
Under normal circumstances, this hat would have taken one hour to knit.
Knitting and photographing took approximately five hours.
It’s all condensed into just over one minute.
It was a huge pain in the ass, but I’m pretty pleased with how it came out (even though the pictures are crap). I think it was fairly well received.
Also, in case you were wondering, the music was composed by wonderful boyfriend, who would like me to mention that he threw it together in a couple of minutes cause he’s great (okay, that last part was me).
Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.
So I’m pretty sure I discussed this last year, but I knit damn near all the time. In class. While walking. In the car. Hanging out with friends. At a party (though less there as my stitches go a little wonky after a drink or two…). I don’t really have “knitting time” cause to me, every time is knitting time.
Recently, I’ve been knitting here:
This is a blanket fort some friends and Joe and I built in our living room. It’s highly awesome. There are twinkle lights inside.
It’s perfect for curling up with some pillows, my laptop, my boyfriend, and my knitting. Yay. : )
This is the last entry for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, so I hope you guys had fun (and that new readers will stick around!). Don’t forget about the contest. You should totally enter even if you think someone has already guessed it–if your answer includes a more specific detail, you could still win! You have until tomorrow sometime or until I get around to choosing a winner. : )
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:
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.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 