I <3 Knit Fix

Gotta say that my new copy of Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters is frakkin' AWESOME! Stupidly, I sat down an hour ago after a rather brain frying work day to start the cables of Saffron Cables. First row seemingly went ok. That is, until I was 3 stitches off on one of the charts which I found AFTER I started the second row. Sat down with my trusty new book, and it walked me through unpicking and reknitting cables without having to rip out hundreds of stitches. Where was this book when I started knitting again last year, and how did I go so long without it?

One Measly Row

That's all I knitted last night. One measly row of the Saffron Cables afghan. Took me an hour to finish, too. Granted, it was the increase row to setup the cable section so I don't feel like I did so bad while watching an episode of Nip/Tuck. After being accustomed to charts and straight forward sock instructions, the written directions were a bit challenging for me to follow. Though, I can't really say I've ever been one to follow written directions... I did get the setup row finished correctly the first time, so I should start on some chart work tonight!

Seedy Knitting

Seed stitch knitting that is. A decent chunk of the weekend was spent knee deep k1 p1 working on the border for the Saffron Cables afghan. Many hours and almose a full skein of yarn went into this 2.5" of seed stitch. I wonder if I'll have enough yarn as the pattern states that it should be 48 inches across, but mine is in the ballpark of 64 inches. Big warm blankie!!

Up close and personal with the Saffron Cables progress



To paraphrase the Cookie Monster, "B is for blanket and that's good enough for me!"

Saturday night, I finished up my covert knitting project. I'm really pleased with the results and took some pictures which I'll share after it's sent to its recipient. I want to order much more Gloss yarn from Knitpicks and work up some Christmas knitting projects :)

Covert Knitting

Sorry for the radio silence. My main project on the needles is for a secret online knitted item exchange. I can show you this much...



The color came out all wrong in the picture; it's really a deep burgundy color. I'm really pleased with how its turning out. I'll post better pics after I sent the surprise

I cast on the Saffron Cables afghan this week, too. 227 stitches crammed onto 60 inch circulars. This is going to be one massive, warm blanket :D

Finished!

YEAH!

Just kitchenered the second Hub Sock, whew! I learned quite a lot with these. One, don't change the brand of needles from one sock to the next. The change from Crystal Palace US1's to Clover US1's was the difference of about an inch in circumference. So, he has one sock that fits and another that's a bit baggy. I told Hubs that his next pair will fit much better :) Second lesson learned, plain stockinette feet take much fewer stitches than ribbed stitch ones. Hence, the horrible bagginess on the first sock. Third lesson, when making socks for size 13 feet, use long needles to keep stitches from falling off.

Project Stats
Pattern: Slipped Rib Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential, used 2 and a half skeins
Needles: Crystal Palace and Clover bamboo DPNs


Hubs posing his new socks, never mind the dog fur tumbleweeds in the background :)

From the Depths of the UFO Pile

I give you...

Hub Sock 2.0!

Over the holiday weekend, I dug Hub's second sock out of the long forgotten project pile and continued knitting it. I managed to finish the cuff, heel, and heel turn. The heel saw some KIP action Saturday night at Symphony on the Prairie. We arrived roughly an hour before the River City Band took the stage - primo knitting time! The weather was gorgeous, so I knitted on into the performance until it got too dark to see the grey stitches.

Last night, I started swatching the Knitpick's Gloss yarn for a project I'm cooking up for an online swap. It's wonderful - nice stitch definition, beautiful silky sheen, buttery soft, and not in the least bit splitty.

Whew

It's done. Finito. Completed. Stick a fork in it.

Completed Kimono Shawl/Baptism Blanket

Today was blocking day. I was surprised that it took four rinses to get all the gunk and dirt out of the finished item. I always knitted it with freshly washed hands, just goes to show you how easily white yarn picks up stuff.


Blocking in Progress

Blocking made this much, much larger than I anticipated. It's now 51 inches in height and 42 inches in width. I had to move furniture to make room in the spare bedroom for blocking.


Close-up on Bedspread



Close-up on Couch

Project Details
Pattern: Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle, 15 pattern repeats across
Needles: US 6 Crystal Palace Bamboo Circulars
Yarn: Skacel Merino Laceweight
Project Duration: June 16, 2006 - September 4, 2006 (only project going!!)
Blocked Size: 42" by 51"



On Bed Angle

Project Thoughts
Oy! Really, it was easy sailing on this project up until I screwed up its first bind-off. What better way to learn to bind lace off l-o-o-s-e-l-y than have to fix your first attempt for a week? This was my first lace project using lace weight yarn. Another lesson learned being that Crystal Palace circulars are just not a good fit for lace weight yarn. The stitches kept catching on the joins which drove me bonkers! Oh, another lesson learned, I need to buy a blocking board. I was scrunched down on my hands and knees blocking this for quite awhile.


Wide Expanse of Lace

Patience of a Saint

Oh, not me - I definitely don't have that much patience. Hubs does for putting up with me this past week madly attempting to salvage two months of lace knitting. As much as Kris has been patient with me, it now doesn't hold a candle to Bandit's patience level with me.

"Mommy, I am NOT a knitwear model!"

Behold, Bandit swaddled in the salvaged and finished Kimono Shawl/Baptism Blanket/My Bane of the Last week. As of late last night, I finally had all 167 stitches back on the needles after picking up insane amounts of dropped stitches. I did the last of the stitch fixes tonight, and bound off. The trick to binding off lace loosely enough is to use a broomhandle sized knitting needle for the bind off - this project used a US 6 and I used a US10.5 for binding off. It isn't a trapezoid this time!! *insert a little happy dance here*

Blocking tomorrow, so I'll post better pics and a project synopsis then!


Bandit better be glad I'm not having him model sweaters...yet :)

It's (almost) Alive!

Status as of quitting time tonight is just over half the stitches are back on the needle for the baptism blankie. Maybe another night or two and they'll all be back on the needles.

As of this evening, I have all the notions for the Saffron Cables afghan. I ordered a 60 inch pair of Knitpicks Option needles. The needles are just a few inches shy of being my height. Since secret pal exchanges, birthdays, and Christmas are looming around the corner, I also got some supplies for making some presents, too. ;) No details here though, except to say that the new Gloss wool and silk sock yarn from Knitpicks feels and looks fab!

Welcome to my Nightmare

Urgh. Here's the photographic evidence of the mess I caused tonight.

Finished trapezoidal blanket, not the look I was going for.

The left (bind off) side of the shawl was a good 6-8 inches longer than the right (cast on) side. Note the ruffling occuring on the left side edge. Why did I not notice that last night as I was binding off??

After attacking the bind off knotted stitch, I cut too deeply and wound up trimming off four rows of the garter stitch edging. Damn... I tried to pick up the remaining stitches, but they kept dropping quicker than I could cram them back onto the needles.

Eventually, I did have the sense to run a lifeline through the live stitches. That would have been smart before I started hacking into the bind off row. >.< I'm painstakingly picking up all the dropped stitches now and slowly getting the project back on the needles. I'm really hating this yarn now, it sticks to itself when I want it to be smooth yet is smooth enough to drop ridiculous amounts of stitches.

You may want to avert your eyes from the "in progress" picture below. You have been warned.


Employing new tools of the trade - blocking pins to keep tension on the laddered rows, backside of a mousepad to cram said blocking pins into, trusty lifeline, and latch hook thingy tool. Thank goodness I saw on the Yarn Harlot's blog how to use blocking pins to keep tension!

27 out of 167 stiches are back on the needles. Maybe sometime this week I'll cram all these stitches back onto the needle.

Oh yeah, my yarn for the Saffron Cables afghan arrived tonight. After tonight's fiasco, I'm positively giddy with the idea of a project using bulky weight yarn instead of little teensy tiny can't-see-dropped-stitches-easily lace weight. :D

I'm Gonna be Sick

Yargh! Last night, I finished the Kimono Shawl. I hurried home from work this evening to start blocking and recording the big event for the blog. Carefully, I laid out the shawl for its pre-blocked picture when I noticed that I had knitted a trapezoid. My cast off edge was WAAAAAAAAAY too tight. Disheartened, I tried to zhuzh it into a square, but it didn't agree with me. Shit!

Next came the scissors.

And lots of cursing.

Tons of dropped stitches.

It's all safely on a lifeline now so no more damage can be done. Only rows of the garter stitch edge were harmed, easy enough to fix.

Damn, it really sucks to see over two months work literally unraveling before your eyes!

*squee!*

The Saffron Cable afghan will be mine! Well, after the yarn arrives and I spend loads of time knitting. Allow me to back up a bit.

In a welcome moment of serendipity, yesterday I received $100 job-well-done reward. That happened on the very next day after falling in love with the Saffron Cable afghan pattern which needs around $100 worth of yarn and supplies to make. I called my mom yesterday evening and told her about the happy circumstance. She brought up that using that reward to get the supplies would make the afghan a reminder of a job well done for me. Oh, how I love it when folks justify my spending :) I ordered the yarn specified in the pattern - 19 skeins of Berkshire Valley Yarn and a 60 inch Options needle from Knitpicks for the project tonight. Hope I don't freak out the UPS guy by watching the front door for the next week impatiently awaiting my packages' arrivals!

After my big growth spurt on the Kimono Shawl this past weekend, my progress has been very sporadic this week. I didn't pick up the needles at all last night since I was NOT in a good frame of mind after waiting for the neighborhood water supply to be turned back on. Tonight, I got in a whole row of progress before falling asleep in my knitting chair. Hopefully, I can crank out the last 24 lace patterned rows this coming weekend.

What's This?

Why I do believe that's proof that I still knit! *gasp* This weekend was the first time in over a week that I have been able to pick up the needles. Over watching a few episodes of the new Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Kingdom of Heaven, Serenity, Benchwarmers, and the Whole 10 Yards, I was able to crank out over six inches of lace! Wooo!


In Window Progress Shot

It's now just over 28 inches in length and is finally longer than its width. I think I'll knit another 24-row section or two and call this baby done!

Which I suppose that's just in time as I received my fall issue of Interweave Knits and have fallen completely for the Saffron Cables afghan. In another color of course, I'm not much of an orange person as it looks sickly on me :)

No Progress

No knitting progress to report. Check out my personal blog Knotts Burrow to see what Hubs and I have been up to.

Slow Poke

Faced with only a few inches of new lace to show after a weekend full of knitting. I'm resorting to desperate measures to find new ways to photograph the same project over and over. I don't think I've shown Bandit with the Kimono Shawl yet....

It's now around 25 inches in length, only 5 inches short of being a square!

I signed up this weekend for Blockbuster Online thinking that having more DVDs to watch as I knit will help me along on this project. It's been very hard finding motivation to knit even in laceweight merino when the weather has been in the 90s recently.


Awwwwww...isn't he cute? :)

All Work, No Knit.

Ack, what a week! No knitting progress to speak of since it's been very hectic work week. Apparently, not knitting for a few days makes me go a bit nuts, so I wrestled with Bandit tonight after finishing up the work week.

Too cute to not photograph, I snapped the first shot and got onto the floor next to him.


Big mistake. Extreme close-up pics and massive puppy kisses ensued.


Eventually, he realized he had met his match and backed off.


And I realized that I can use the zoom on the digital camera to get a good pic of Bandit's cute little face.

Hopefully I'll have some actual knitting blog fodder this weekend. Kris has an SCA event Saturday, so I'm counting on some quality solo knitting and vegetating time. :)

Diversion

Game night Friday called for a mindless knitting project over a few hours of quality D&D playing. I grabbed the skein of Rowan Denim, looked over the bib pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting, and knitted most of this in Friday night. Only had the button hole and an inch or so of the second strap to knit on Sunday. The button finally was sewn on tonight after I tore the house apart looking for a sewing needle. Ready for Cosmo Knotts once he's big enough :)

Mason-Dixon Bib in Rowan Denim


I couldn't wrestle Bandit into modeling this handknit, so the top of his doghouse had to do. :)


Close-up of the kyoootest button ever! It's Peter Rabbit!

I haven't been slacking on my larger projects. A decent hunk of time Sunday was devoted to the Kimono Shawl between loads of laundry. I didn't realize how much progress I've made until I measured it tonight - it's 22 inches tall now! I can't wait to block this sucker out to show how it really looks; I just don't seem to be able to photograph it well.


Kimono Shawl progress. I need to take a knitting project photography course or grow a few feet taller. Note my foot on the left edge of the picture that makes the lace lay poorly.

NoooOOOoooo

Friday, I stopped by the Knit Knack store in my hometown to try and get a few spare of these:

No clue what the technical name is of this tool. I call it my hook thingy - very technical term, no?

My mom used to use it when she machine knitted in the 80s and showed me an easy way to work in ends with it. I really like using it to fix dropped stitches and wanted a backup or two for when I eventually lose hers. Alas, no luck. The Knit Knack store was closed last Friday afternoon for a seminar. Their old barn mocked me with the phrase "YARN BARN" emblazoned on its roof, and its doors locked. *sigh*

I didn't have any time to knit this past weekend, so the Kimono Shawl looks exactly as it did late last week. I have to find some knitting time this week!

Lacin' Along

Kimono Shawl Progress

I've been focusing my knitting on the Kimono Shawl; it's up to 12 inches long. Granted, my knitting time has been limited since I've been sick and cleaning house. After reading on Jackie's blog that she's due in a little over 5 weeks, I better get cracking!! I don't want to be held responsible for a missed due date because I haven't finished Cosmo's baptism blankie like the Yarn Harlot has done recently. :)

Stash Enhancing

For once, I actually caught one of the seasonal sales at Mass Ave Knit Shop last Friday. 30-50% off all yarns in the store was more than enough for me to get my sickie self out of bed. Here's my haul:

Purpley superwash merino sock yarn from Artyarns


Katia Ingenua mohair blend which will become a Branching Out scarf for someone for some holiday or birthday. Real specific intentions, no?


Skein of Rowan Denim and a Beatrix Potter button will be a bib from Mason-Dixon Knitting for nephew-to-be, Cosmo Knotts.


Self patterning Lana Grossa sock yarn with "extra strapazierfahig". No clue what strapazierhafig is; hope it's good!


Sage Cascade 220 for a Celtic Cap from Girl from Auntie. Want to give her patterns a try to see if I could knit the Rogue or Eris sweaters anytime in the near future.


Katia Mississippi cotton for the perfect pattern I found to make for my stepmom, Betty, while waiting in the checkout lane. No clue as to if it will be a birthday or Christmas gift yet. :)


Can't forget the cutest haul of all, a black sheep measuring tape from Lantern Moon. These are no longer specialty items in each bag of white sheep measuring tapes; they're shipped as a seperate item now. MAKS had a whole load of them, so I had to adopt one which with Bandit is smitten :)