Long Time No Me

I know. It's been ages. And the longer I went without blogging, the more reluctant I was to do it again, which is kind of sad since I have been home for a couple of weeks now. I think I lost my mojo a little bit. While I don't have it back entirely, it is a little bit more back now. I'm pushing through, you guys! The thing is though, that it is hard for me to knit when I don't have anything else to do because I am between jobs. When it is something I look forward to doing, I can't get enough. When I am not doing anything it seems like busy-work and I resent it a little, which I hate! Because I love knitting and it's not knitting's fault that I have nothing else to do except helicopter-parent a fussy cat (which mainly involves watching a lot of naps).

I should be knitting more because of Nerd Wars and this month I have made much more of an effort. I have one project completed, hope to have one more completed this weekend, and hope to get partial credit for at least one more. So that's something. I will post more about what I have been knitting, but this is probably one of my most favorite things ever and I finished it earlier this month (no buttons yet, of course):

It is made from the Bellyphant pattern and is in navy and lime green color and is even cuter in person!

Round One Has Begun

Very. Overwhelmed. Right. Now. The challenges have been posted for this month's round of Nerd Wars and while there is tons of flexibility and lots of creative possibilities I am finding that I don't quite know what to do with myself. I need to shape up before I go to Looped tomorrow because otherwise it's going to be like going to the grocery store when very hungry and drunk.
*runs into wall*

Nerd Wars Have Begun!!!

Never has war been so fuzzy and friendly! For those of you who are not familiar with Nerd Wars, you can find out about it more here. I have been placed on my first choice team- Team Writer, with other lovely knitters who are fans of Castle and other amateur sleuth shows, like Murder She Wrote. Over the next three months we will be taking part in a series of knitting challenges related to our nerdery and will totally dominate those other nerds!!** I am really really excited about this. I was so nervous I wouldn't get picked for Team Writer, not only because I love Castle, but also because I had grown fond of other Team Castle hopefuls as we talked about NWs in the weeks leading up to selection. I am excited to join them and others and knit things related to one of the most adorable amateur sleuths ever!

**or have tons of fun trying

Snug as a Bug

I don't think I have mentioned my (second) first sweater here? Or I have mentioned it, but haven't gone into much detail about it. It is the Francis Revisited pattern and I am using Cascade Eco in a pretty basic gray color. I didn't want a color that stood out too much because it is my first sweater and I want to wear it and I was sort of limited in color choices when I bought this yarn. The Eco stands for "ecological" but it was also the most economical because I didn't want to spend a lot of money and then get bored or have a ton of weird colored yarn and you get a lot of yarn for your money with Eco and it is nice and sweater-y. So now I have all this yarn and a sweater that's about 3/4 finished- I have to make a sleeve and do the cowl neck, but I don't have the heart to work on it right now, and it's not because I am bored.
It's because I tried it on and it is a little...snug.

In its early stages. I would take a new picture but I'd prefer to ignore it right now

I know it's going to get a little bigger when I block it and it's hard to get a sense of how its going to fit when the stitches are on scrap yarn but it's making me a bit sad. I am not tremendously busty and based on the pattern it should be a smidgen too big in the chest area but there you have it. Of course this means I am trying to lose weight to fit into a sweater which I haven't even blocked yet. Sigh. I will work on it this weekend. And I know it will fit wonderfully once it's blocked but till then I am going to mope about it and work on UFOs (so maybe this isn't all bad?) and eat like a little bird.

A Weekend of Knits and Giggles



started...



I spent last weekend with the lovely ladies of the DC area's Creative Knitters Guild on their yearly retreat in Arlington, VA. It was one of the best weekends ever, full of wonderful conversation, many laughs, and of course lots of knitting. I overpacked like I always do, but less on shoes this time and more on WIPs and yarn with which to start new projects. Though I continued work on my rainbow socks and first (second sweater) I really wanted to start and finish this Peacock Hat, which I did and did and it is perfect.



It was so nice to hear everyone talk about what they were working on and seeing knitting in action. As I have mentioned here before (I think) I don't really have any friends who knit (actually now I do!!) and so for me knitting has been somewhat of a solitary activity. My husband and friends are really good sports and try to get into whatever knitting mystery series I am obsessed with or will be really supportive when I describe my provisional cast-on related stress but being around people that get it first hand was amazing. It was also really inspiring to see the things my new ladyfriends were knitting and I hope with time and practice I can knit up such beautiful and complex items.



...finished!!



Part of me feels like the weekend was this wondrous dream from which I am still recovering but the hat that I made proves that it was very very real AND the next one is only a year away! Can't wait!

Toe Up From The Flo Up

I have started my first pair of toe-up socks. I am pretty excited about this, first of all because knitting socks is one of my new year's resolutions, but secondly and mostly, because I will be able to plan the cuff better when I know how much yarn I will be working with. With my first pair of socks, the green cuff-down ones, I was very stressed out about the length of the cuffs. They could be bigger but there was no way I could really go back because I only realized I would have plenty of yarn left over once I was almost done with the toe. This would probably stop being an issue once I knit more socks and got a sense of how much yarn I needed, etc. Until then though, toe-up may be a thing for me. Also I was dying to use this yarn again from my tinked half-sock featured a couple of weeks ago.

I am using Wendy D. Johnson's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern and so far it is going pretty well. (I am only on row 7 or so). The provisional cast on aspect is a bit of a turn off for this, and generally, but as I recounted a few months back, I think I have the hang of that and kitchener stitch so it should work out alright.

An Adorable Sweater

For an even more adorable baby. She looks absolutely perfect. I could look at this picture all day (and I may have done that).

Finally A Resolution That's Hard To Break

Right?

Happy New Year!!

If you'd have told me at the beginning of 2011 that I would be knitting like I do by the end of the year I wouldn't have believed you, but isn't that what makes time so crazy?! If I think about 2011 in passing, I feel like it was a boring year, a year where nothing that awesome or exciting happened, a rut year if you will. But then if I think a bit harder I realize just how much has happened- my husband and I made a new home for ourselves in a new city, we made new friends and strengthened old friendships, I tried a variety of jobs (though none of them was my dream job- related newsflash- 2012 will be the year of finding a job I love...or like a lot), I was in a flashmob, my friends and I ran a half marathon, we went to Hawaii(!!), we got a car...I could go on but I won't because I have to get to the most exciting part of this post. So in short, if this was a rut year then I am super excited (and preemptively exhausted a little bit) about what this new year is bringing with it!

And because no new year is complete without resolutions to break, here are mine (knitting related only). In 2012 I will knit/make/do the following:

1. Clapotis
2. Entrelac
3. Something with my handspun
4. Grown-up sweater
5. 3 pairs of socks
6. Turn a Square Hat
7. Something with Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, maybe #1 because it would
look awesome
8. Knitting retreat
9. Podcast
10. Blog more regularly

It's a Break, Not a Breakup

I am not knitting till the new year. I am pooped from Christmas knitting and quite frankly I don't have anything that I can sit with quietly and just knit. The sleeves need to be joined to the body of my bottom up baby sweater which requires scrap yarn and and lots of loose ends and my French Press Slippers need to be seamed and there's a lot of ends and parts for those as well. The only other thing I have with me to work on are socks which I have to restart. I got to here before I tinked them. I was using this fake cables pattern but the yarn makes me want plain vanilla ones so I decided to start afresh. We are going to head back to DC soon so I think I am just going to stay still for a while.

pre-tinked sock

Holiday Homemade

It's funny that I am making a big deal of these stitch markers since they were probably the easiest thing I made this week and took the least amount of time. I really love them, however, because I did not have any fancy dangly-ish stitch markers like the ladies in my knitting group or like ones I see in Ravelry pictures of WIPs. So now I have some. And it only took an evening to make around twenty. And it was a very inexpensive project!

I had these beads sitting around in my bedroom (most of them from high school) so all I needed was some beading wire, little jewelry loop things and crimping tubes, all of which I found at JoAnn Fabric. (Side note- it was my first time at JoAnn's and I want to live in that store. I would have so much fun!) I stayed up (maybe till 3am) making these while my little brother played video games in the adjoining room to keep me company and it was nice to see my little pile of markers grow. Now that I have lots of leftover wire and crimping tubes (but no more beads) I would like to make these again maybe even fancier when I go home, but this was a good way to use up the beads I had and make something I am going to enjoy using.

Knitting in a Holidaze

My dad noted that I hadn't been posting a lot lately. And this is true. I have been busy with work and I have also been working on Christmas knitting gifts so I haven't wanted to spill the beans (not that any of the recipients read my blog). Now I can tell a little bit because I have given one knitted gift already, to my friend Stacey. She runs, and I thought this would be nice on cold days:

I used the Braided Ear Warmer pattern in Rowan Lima and it knitted up pretty fast on the metro and home after work. It is super soft and feels like it will keep her ears nice and toasty. I was worried that the cables wouldn't show up but they ended up much more defined than I thought.

Another gift I just finished and can share here is the Zelda Cloche from the most recent KnitScene magazine which I made for my husband's aunt using Karabella Soft Tweed. I loved the colors used for the hat in the magazine and the model totally worked it! I felt like my aunt-in-law would like something a bit more neutral, however, so I used a brown color for the contrast stripes. I absolutely love this yarn. I have several skeins of it hanging about and I want to make a Turn a Square hat in it for my husband, but the way my holiday knitting is going, I think this is going to be a 2012 project.

So here is the cloche. I will be replacing the button for a toggle button because I don't like the way this button looks. I was just curious to see how the loop worked.

Yarn Kitten!!!

I am still a little traumatized by my summer working at Old Navy and I don't know how I feel about this grandma-bot machine that churns out knitted items while I spend days working on a single sock cuff but I love the knitty kitty so much I had to share:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CinTc-8vdaQ

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and that your knits, whether bot-made or handmade, are keeping you warm!! 

Drop and Roll!

SO many updates but it is pretty late so I will just post the main one- I am a spinner!! Thanks to my wonderful husband I was able to take a spinning class at Fibre Space. I already had a drop spindle (which I had tried to spin with but couldn't make it work) and I took it to last week's class expecting to come out of there spinning nice, even, lightweight yarn.

That didn't happen, which was disappointing, HOWEVER, two things:
1. The instructor said my yarn was lovely and in the beginning everyone's always looks like that. She also said that if I kept practicing, pretty soon I would long for the days when I could spin a natural looking thick-and-thin yarn. Maybe.

2. The yarn I spun today came out much better. I really liked it.

So...moral of the story? If you complain about something a lot and think it isn't for you, maybe you will really like it? That was how this was for me and I can't wait to spin more and try different fibers, and make stuff from my own-spun yarn!!

Love This Sweater

I just finished it. It looks so so cute, even cuter than the picture in person.

Big Things Are Happening!

I am working on the podcast for real now. It is taking a lot more time than I expected. I thought I would be able to finish a short episode in a weekend but it hasn't been that simple. I have been knitting a ton recently and had been saving talking about it for the podcast so I haven't really updated but I will put up some pictures soon because I don't like feeling I am abandoning my blog!

I will say due to recent baby births, Glovember has been a bit of a bust for me. I ripped out the same pair of handwarmers twice because the first time I knit them they were too big and the second attempt was too small. Sigh.

Glovember is Upon Us!!

Happy Glovember one and all!!

I have found my half-finished handwarmer that I started earlier this year which needs a mate and that will be my first Glovember goal. This project was my first attempt at color work and except for an unfortunate purling incident which my husband has told me no one will notice I think this half-handwarmer looks pretty good. A little nervous about picking up the stitches for the thumb which are on waste yarn- have only done that for baby sweater sleeves but they give you more stitches to work with...

 The second pair of handwarmers I want to make will be from this pattern. They are a surprise for a childhood friend who I haven't seen in many years. She plays the double bass so I think she'll dig these. She is one of those people who I have kept ever-so-slightly in touch with over Facebook and I feel like if I hadn't moved away we might be quite good friends. It's just a vibe I get. In any event, I think she will like them and they look way fun to make.

Weaving in the Ends

Today was a lazy Sunday, but a super productive one. I finally bound off my second scarf for the Special Olympics Scarf Project. My mom had sent me the two she finished a while ago and I had promised to put tassels on them all- since I had some yarn left over.

Tassels. Are. Annoying.

That is all I have to say about that. I don't hate adding them as much as I do weaving in the ends or putting on buttons but I am still not a fan. All these things make a mess- you get little bits of yarn which the cat inevitably steals or you find them later stuck with surprising strength to the living room rug and it just takes so much time.

But I am done. With the tassels and weaving in the ends and everything. The scarves are in individual ziplocks ready to be mailed and I think they look wonderful. The scarves are going to be gifts to all those who participate in next year's Special Olympics as well to those who support them. I love that all these knitters and crocheters are so into into this and can all give something uniquely from them but all in the same colors. Wishing all participants lots of luck and fun for this wonderful event!

Cowls and Socks and Podcasts, Oh My!

So many things to talk about today. First, obviously, the WIPs for WIPW:  

My second burberry inspired cowl

I only have one more repeat left to do in this pattern and then the most annoying challenging part- kitchener stitching it all together. I am actually looking forward to it a little bit because I feel like I  have the kitchener rhythm down now (famous last  words).

sock

Then there's my sock, which I took out on the metro today instead of the cowl because it was rainy and gross outside and I didn't want the cowl to get soaked from people dripping their umbrellas or jacket sleeves all over it.


I think I am still on track to finish this sock by the end of Socktober, thus meeting my goal of completing my first pair of socks but it would have been nice to make two pairs. I know, I know. Given my schedule that is not only greedy but also ridiculous and impossible. There is something wrong with me.

After Socktober of course, comes Glovember (join my group on Ravelry!) during which I will be completing a pair of handwarmers for a good friend. I started them in the spring so yeah...good timing.

What else to share? What else? Oh well there's this- poor little penguins. Apparently they have enough sweaters now, oops, jumpers? But it doesn't hurt to keep some handy and model them on your cats. Do send pictures if you do. 

cats love being dressed, promise!

There's also this, which I heard about on Cast On. It is so cool. I want one.

ALSO- what is going on with Cast On? And Never Not Knitting? Is everyone leaving the podcast-o-sphere? Where did Sticks and String go? Thank goodness I still have Just One More Row and 2 Knit Lit  Chicks and Stash and Burn. I don't know what I am going to do when I am caught up with all the episodes.

My knitting podcast obsession started several weeks ago when I started a new work project. My work involves looking at hundreds of billions of boring documents all day. It doesn't involve a lot of brain activity though and so we are allowed to listen to music or whatever else while we do this. It became pretty clear early on that ABBA Gold loses its magical powers when you listen to it three times a day and I didn't want to waste it so I turned to podcasts. Generally speaking, they have changed my life. I listen to NPR, The Nerdist, WTF, Rachel Maddow, Freakonomics to name a few (I am not linking to them all) and I feel like I learn all these cool things every day. I also listen to a whole bunch of knitting related podcasts. Ones I didn't mention above that I have started listening to are YarnGasm, Cogknitive and Purl Diving (are there any more I should be listening to? I prefer them to be over half an hour and audio only so I can pay attention to my computer screen).Oh no! There are not going to be any new Purl Diving episodes either.

My only issue with the podcasts, the knitting ones specifically, is that I can't keep up with all the knitting I am hearing about. Relatively speaking, I am quite a new knitter, but because of the podcasts I feel like I know all this stuff which I don't have the time to put into practice all at once. I want to do cool things like the ravolympics, or go to fiber festivals, or dye my own yarn because it all sounds SO AWESOME. But I am at work, working, and I just can't. The good side of it is that I am constantly inspired and look forward to going to work, if only to learn about what is going on out there in the world. All these podcasts have also inspired me to create my own, but that dream has been hindered by my work and volunteering schedule the past few months. I hope to get my weeknights back at the end of next week (finally) as well as my weekends, and am going to start putting together episodes then. Phew.

This has been a very long post for me so I am going to go and work on my cowl now. I hope to be able to update soon with pictures of the matching hat I will be casting on tomorrow if not (fingers crossed) tonight.

Knitting Without Pictures

I have been so busy since the last time I posted. I can't believe it has been almost a week. I am pretty bummed about that. The good news is that at least I have been squeezing in some knitting when I can. I have cast on another cowl. This one is for my best friend (I don't think she reads this blog, shocker) and I was a lot less nervous about using the provisional cast on this time. Also how cute is this- my husband glanced over at me while I was knitting the other day, noticed the different colored chain on the end of my work and asked "is that a provisional cast on?" So cute. Anyway, will post pictures of that tomorrow for WIPW, but now it is definitely bedtime.