I’m a bad knitblogger.
It’s not my fault. Really, it’s not. I have the flu. And while you would think that this would give me a free pass to stay home and sleep and knit and blog, you’d be quite wrong. The end of the semester is fast approaching and I’ve been shoved head-first into paper-writing, test-taking, and presentation-giving. Eek.
On the other hand, I still have the highest grade in my calc class and I think both my professor and several classmates are impressed with my maths skills. Go me.
So I have been getting a little bit of knitting done, here and there. Mostly on the seekrit project:
On which I alternate feeling like the whole thing is going to be amazing and the best thing EVER omg, and feeling like it’s just not going to work out and it’s all going to suck and wahh. This waffling is common for me, though, so I’m trying not to worry too much. It’s coming along, at least, and I should have it completed in the timeframe that I want.
And I’ve whipped up a few heart bubbles.
These things are so cute, and great for instant gratification–I can have one knitted, sewn, and stuffed in about 45 minutes, or while watching one episode of my TV show of choice (I currently follow… uh. eleven shows. Wow, how sad am I?). I mean, I can’t even finish an entire round on my teacloth in that amount of time, although that’s a whole ‘nother long, whiny story. Point is, these things whip up quickly.
I also got some things in the mail today!
Owl and squirrel kits, which will be used as (cup)cake toppers for the owl and squirrel’s wedding. I am very much considering knitting a teeny veil for the owl and an even teenier bowtie (read: small piece of i-cord tied in a knot) for the squirrel. Also going to advise the bride and groom not to put said (cup)cake toppers directly onto the (cup)cakes, because it would kind of suck to have fuzzy (cup)cakes.
I’ve learned that I will most likely be traveling for a week just after the semester ends, so I’ve also been trying to plan some knitting for that. I’ll bring along the kits and/or the seekrit project, if those aren’t completed, obviously. But I need some fun stuff, too! How much would you pack for two days in a car, three days with relatives, and then two more days in a car? Two projects? Three? None because you want to buy more yarn when you get there?
Entrelacky!
This scarf reminded me yet again how addicting entrelac is. It fell out of favor with me after the mess that was the Forest Path Stole, but now I think it’s my favorite thing again.
I used a pretty large needle size for this yarn, to try to stretch the yardage; it worked, because I got a 6′ scarf (enough to wrap once around my neck and still hang to my waist) out of 200yds. It did leave me with a pretty thin fabric, but that’s okay, I’ll just call it drape. Plus, this isn’t meant to be my super extra warm bullet proof scarf–I already have one of those.
All in all, I call this one a win. I don’t even have anything to complain about.
Pattern: just some basic entrelac, 3 five stitch squares=15 stitches wide
Yarn: Trendsetter Tonalita in 2345 Flower, 2 skeins
Needles: US10.5/6.5mm
(Here on Ravelry.)
Cat:
(Beware, her belly may look delightfully soft and fuzzy, but at even a hint of human hands near it she turns into teeth and claws. Ask me how I know. I can never manage to resist it.)
Something…
This post is several days late, I’m completely brain-dead apparently, and also exhausted. I have been working on entrelacky:
and I should have it finished in time for an actual photoshoot when a friend of mine comes over on Friday.
In the meantime, I am not working on the top seekrit project like I should be, and browsing sweater patterns for use with my 2000 yds of worsted yarn.
I’m not sure what to compare the yarn to, since I so rarely use worsted wools; to me it feels like a tighter spun, less fuzzy WoTA, knits up well, shows texture nicely, squishy, non-superwash.
Originally I was going to go for the Fibonacci cardi from the most recent Magknits, but this yarn is so good with cables that i feel like it would be a waste to use it on all of that stockinette. Also I would probably get bored with all of that stockinette.
So I go to some of the popular cabled cardigan choices. Eris? Well, it’s gorgeous. But I’m not sure it’s a wise choice for someone who has yet to finish a sweater (whichever one I choose this time will be my third attempt.) I would need to add a lot of waist shaping to get it to fit me the way I like, I think, and I’m so not comfortable enough with these things to do that yet.
Okay, how about Mariah? Yeah, same deal. I’m not sure how it would look on me and I’m not sure I can make the proper changes to ensure a successful outcome.
Then there is this amazing sweater, which I know would look good on me because my body type is similar to the designer’s. Although if I made it I would probably drive myself crazy by changing the sleeves to set-in. Through years of store-bought sweater hate I’ve come to the discovery that drop sleeves do not look good on large breasted, short waisted women (ie me). Actually, looking at it again, I could probably knit the sleeves from the full length version, which do have a sleeve cap. Or something. Anyway, it would be a good choice, although the pattern does mention that it is best for experienced knitters who know how to adapt as they go along and who will plan well in advance. I think I could do that (maybe).
Uh, did I mention that I hate cabling? I do. I mean, I can do it, no problem, but it is easily my least favorite knitting technique.
I do keep coming back to this bolero, but I look terrible in turtlenecks. Also I’ve looked over the pattern (in English) and I don’t understand half of it.
So those are my serious contenders, and if you’ll excuse me I need to go fall into bed with some hot chocolate before i fall asleep in my keyboard. I’ll be back eventually with a scarf FO post, and if I’m very lucky, progress on the seekrit project.
This that and the other
(this extra-late Saturday post brought to you by the cold that has completely flattened me. oof.)
There is SO MUCH stuff going on right now, knitting-wise. Some Ravelers are having a mini-meetup on Tuesday, which you’d better believe I’m attending. I’m crazy busy over there with assorted forum and group stuff (who knew I could be so sociable and chatty?), which leaves me much less time to knit than I’d like, especially since I’ve got so many projects going on.
I should be working on the seekrit project o’doom, but I can’t find the motivation. It needs to be done in about six weeks, which should be motivation enough, but… meh. I went to wind up some yarn for it yesterday, which… got tangled on the ballwinder.
(shaky hands = craptastic photos. sorry.)
Excellent. So maybe later tonight or tomorrow I’ll take some scissors to that and see what I can salvage. (you have NO IDEA how much my fingers wanted to type ‘selvedge’ there. heh.)
So instead of taking that to class, I took some yarn that I plan to use for a sweater, and swatched a bit.
I’m probably going to note the gauge that I’m getting and frog; I’m not sure I like the fabric. But the yarn displays texture beautifully, which should help me with my pattern choice. I’ve got a billion sweaters in mind, maybe I’ll sort through my Rav queue tonight and pick some things. You guys will help me decide, right?
And I got a package today with some yarn. Mmmmm yarn. So what do I do but cast on immediately.
What can I say? I’ve discovered that I need more scarves. So I’m hoping that I can get a decent length out of 200yds of this stuff; I guess I’ll find out. (On a side note, the yarn, this stuff, feels just like SWS, but it’s a little thinner and comes in way more awesome colors. Also it’s a wool/acrylic blend so it won’t felt if you breathe on it like SWS will.)
And, hopefully soonish in the mail will be kits for an owl and a squirrel, for my friends who are getting married in December, who are known as… owl and squirrel. 😛 if I find the time the owl will get a little lacy veil and the squirrel will get a teeny bowtie.
As for Kitty, well.
She’s a kitty.
mmmmmittens!
Finally.
The thumbs are kind of messy (I still haven’t mastered colorwork on such teeny little rounds), I’ve remembered why I don’t actually wear mittens (my first instinct is to fling them off to get my fingers free), and I had to take pictures while they were still wet because stranded colorwork takes forever to dry.
But they’re finished.
And they’re all mine.
Pattern: Loosely based off of helloyarn’s generic mitten pattern, modified to have a closer fitting cuff and a thumb gusset.
Yarn: Decadent Fibers Marshmallow, about 50g each of Grey Goose and Plum Pudding
Needles: My poor worn out US1.5/2.75mm Addi Turbos (on which the nickel plating is completely gone)
Size: 6″ wrists, super long fingers
Duration: 3 weeks or so (they spent days at a time shoved in a corner, and actual knitting time once I got all of my issues worked out was probably only four days)
Modifications: As mentioned above, I went down to 40 stitches on the cuff to fit my teeny wrists, increased to 48 on the hand, knit ten pattern rows then increased two stitches in pattern every other row for a thumb gusset until I had thirteen stitches for the thumb. Held these stitches, cast on three over the gap to continue the pattern up the side, then after finishing the mitten shell, picked up seven stitches on the side of the thumb (three for the pattern column, two on each side to prevent holes), knit thumb on twenty stitches.
(find them here on the Rav.)
Mittens and other (literal) junk
Mitten #1 is done! 😀 Mittens are seriously quick knits once you get past all the issues I seem to have with them. Didn’t I do this with my endpaper mitts too? Ah well. I do consider myself a process knitter most of the time, so I guess I’m getting lots of process out of this project. Here’s a side by side comparison of the new mitten, and the old ill-fitting mitten:
What a difference. I’m so glad I didn’t do a second swirl mitten, and I think I might actually frog the first at some point. It’s gorgeous, yes, but (especially in comparison with the new mitten) it’s completely unwearable for me.
And does the new mitten fit?
Hell yeah it does. (Needs blocking, though. Ignore that. Focus on the fitting part.)
As for the other junk, well. This week’s blogstalking assignment was junk drawers; I don’t have one. I have a junk floor. (The weak stomached and mothers of teenagers should shield their eyes.)
(Seriously. I’m warning you.)
There you go. I took this picture while sitting in the one square foot of visible floor space near the door. Doesn’t that make you feel better about your own living space?
Freakin’ frackin’ mittens.
I frogged them back to the cuff, because even with my mods they were going to be too short, again, and the charts still weren’t translating to knit fabric the way I liked. So I decided to make my life way easier by going with a very simple pattern that would be easy to add length to.
I’m much happier with them, now, and they’re going a lot quicker, too. Which is good, because my hands were freezing yesterday. It’s mitten season!
Poor kitty thinks it’s cold, too–she’s been napping in my bed an awful lot.
We’re sorry.
Kittengirl (excuse me, ‘Jesh’) cannot come to the blog right now. She claims that she has 6 pages of a paper to write for tomorrow. I don’t know why she’s doing that, since there’s paper right in the printer already, and she can just take some out of there, but you two-legged creatures are strange like that.
I have been instructed to sit here and be quiet, but I just can’t do that. My food bowl is only half full, you see, and also I’m in desperate need of a scritch behind the ears. They don’t scritch themselves, you know!
Anyway, you can leave your messages for ‘Jesh’ with me and I will get them to hereat them.
Breakfast and other assorted things.
This post is going to be a bit of a mashup, because I have neither the time nor the brain power to write with any sort of eloquence.
In blogstalking, this is my breakfast:
usually with a cup of hot chocolate. I can’t actually eat anything until several hours later, because three of those pills make my stomach rather unhappy.
In knitting, I’m not, at the moment. I’ve been distracted by other crafts, namely tatting:
In internet things, I’ve started project 365, here. It is not yet pretty or linked to anything yet, but I should get all of that worked out later today.
And in vaguely life related news, I’m kind of considering going by my full first name for the first time in… my life. I mean, there are a lot of really cool Jessamyns out there, and I feel like I should be representin’, yo. Plus I’m finally at the age where I like my name, despite its impossibility to pronounce (rhymes with ‘specimen’, for future reference) and its obscure origin (“I’m named after a writer you’ve never heard of.”) But I’m not sure if I could persuade anyone to make the switch. Might be an interesting social experiment.
Stuck in neutral
Or so it feels like. I’ve also already failed at NaBloPoMo, so I’m glad I didn’t sign up.
The mittens are back in action, and better (I hope) than ever.
My only concern is that I won’t remember everything I did exactly when I go to make the second one. I suppose I can always just wing it. The good news is that it fits to a T, and looks lovely at the same time. And I believe these are moving into my at-home knitting, because it is getting increasingly difficult for me to pull them out and work on them on the train and during class, due to my constant need to refer to a chart. No big deal, plus I’ve got a seekrit project in the works that also needs my attention.
That is one of 36 squares that I need to have done by mid-December, all with various textures and patterns and the like. Fortunately I’m not working alone; there are two others doing squares, so I myself only need to knit twelve of them. I’m using Peace Fleece, which is scratchy, but my swatch became pretty soft in the wash, and it shows off texture so well. Plus, I think the recipient will enjoy the meaning behind the yarn just as much as the finished object itself. My only issue is that, even though I’ve almost finished a square that I just started yesterday, I feel like I’ve made no progress at all and I have so much to do. I feel like that on pretty much everything in my life right now: assignments, knitting, housework, urgh. Mercury’s just come out of retrograde so I’m sure it will pass, but it’s disconcerting while it’s here. And it doesn’t help that my sleep cycles are thrown off by time changes.
We believe that it may be Kitty’s birthday this week–she was a little over a year old when we got her last December. (Don’t worry, I did not risk life and limb to get a birthday hat on her head. I did, however, risk my sanity while putting it on in photoshop.)
Jeshknits 