balls

My roommates in college were incredibly attached to a particular video game. They played it obsessively and often a good time on Saturday night meant having a few drinks and playing Dr. Robotnic's, or as my friends liked to call it: balls.

Today I finished my torts my final. It is an absolutely wonderful feeling, even though I have no idea what sort of grade I'll get. But to celebrate I made balls.


A different sort of balls than my friends, but way more to my liking since I was never any good at video games, except for Mario 3. But aren't the balls pretty? On the left is Ultra Alpaca and on the right is Knitpicks Shimmer in Happy Dance. It took me three episodes of Grey's Anatomy to do them both. Most of the time though was devoted to the Shimmer, since hand winding 440 yards of lace weight yarn apparently takes a while.

A Christmas Story

You know what? I had absolutely no intention of knitting Christmas gifts for anyone this year. Everyone was going to get UConn law gear and that was that.

But then I remembered that sweater I had started for my sister and still hadn't finished. I felt bad, not bad enough to try and figure out the sweater, but bad none the less. So I made her a scraf out of some purple mystery yarn I had. I made the scarf and I thought I had used up all the yarn, but then I discovered more of the mystery yarn. So now I feel compelled to make a set of matching hand warmers.

Then I was ordering some new needles off of knitpicks, and they were having a sale. I just couldn't resist a couple of hanks of lace weight yarn. "I'll makes scarves," I thought "One for me and one for Mom." Perfect.

But then I went home for Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure that my mom would want a scarf. In my mind the conversation we would have went something like this...

Me: I should make you something. I haven't knit you anything in a while.
Mom: Oh that would be lovely.
Me: Anything, in particular you'd like?
Mom: Oh no, I'd love anything you make me.

The actual conversation was remarkably similar, which is odd since my imaginary conversation generally bare no resemblance to realisty. However, there was a key difference. Mom said she wanted a hat. A hat. Ok I love knitting hats, I can handle that I said. It was then decided that we need to head to the LYS to get yarn for said hat, and as a bonus they were having a sale over Thanksgiving weekend. All the more reason to go.

But my brother was home for the holiday and rather than sit at home and try to will all those leftovers to go away he decided to come along too. And while we were there wondering around I was seized by an explicable urge to ask him if he wanted me to make him something. It was probably being surronded by all that yarn, it does funny things to the head. Rob decided that he would also like a hat so he picked out yarn too.

So here I am in the midst of finals and somehow I decided that making everyone gifts was a good idea. You know how much I have done?

About this much:


I have half a hat, a torts outline, and half a contracts outline.

Everything will be fine. I will not panic...

a sentance of sorts

Look at this! Who wouldn't want to go to school here?!

But the beauty of campus aside, its been pretty busy. Silly law school professors want to make me learn things and this has cut into my knitting time.

Luckily, I am a master procrastinator. For the past couple days my method of choice has been watching "Chuck" online and working on a new pair of fuzzy feet. My old pair have a giant hole in the toe. They've been well loved and I still do love them. However, since I now have to pay my own heating bill holey slipper socks simply aren't going to cut it. I've just started the toe decreases on the first one. Hopefully I'll be done soon because my place is pretty chilly.

shippin out to boston

Yay my beloved Sox won the World Series!

In celebration I'm considering knitting a pair of red socks.

musings

For months now I've had an intense desire for a brown cardigan. Why? Well, maybe because my little black cardigan gets so much use, and I just want it to have a buddy. Perhaps a brown cardigan seems like it should be wardrobe basic, and my wardrobe is just incomplete until I have one. Or it could just be because I got a pair of super cute brown flats a couple months ago and I just want to expand the options of what I can wear with them.

Regardless of the exact reason, I've decided that my next big project should be said cardigan. After months of looking at patterns and dreaming up the features of the perfect cardigan (seriously I put a lot of thought into this) I've deiced upon Chicknits' Ariann. I've even picked out my yarn, Knitpicks Andean Silk in Chocolate.

But I'm not going to start it quite yet. I bought all this yarn in October and I've decided that I simply must do something with some of it before I can start a new project. The red yarn is Malabrigo in Vermilion to make Foliage and the gray Lamb's Pride is to make a new pair of Fuzzy Feet. Sadly, my old pair had a giant hole in the toe. I over felted them so they wore a bit quicker than they should have. The pale yarn is Malabrigo lace weight in Bluesurf. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with that so I won't worry about it quite yet. But I want to make at least one of the above projects before I continue my brown cardigan quest.

However, before I even get to that I need to finish this hat for a charity auction in a couple weeks,

all for swinging you around

There she is! All done and just hanging out drying is my tilted duster. I tired her on before blocking and she was quite cute and cozy. However, the duster was not without some battles. The sleeves are set in which I've never had to deal with before, and my sleeves seemed a little big for the armholes. But with some basting action and then several attempts of careful seaming I was able to get everything to fit. I think I redid the first sleeve three or four times before I was happy with it, and it was definitely one of those experiences that I feel would have been much better if I had a little rum in diet coke. So the seaming isn't perfect, but I don't think anyone will notice but me and it doesn't bother me enough to rip it all out again and do it over.

But for some seam-free fun I started Knit and Tonic's Le Slouch so that I could answer the eternal question: do Irish girls look good in berets?

And the answer?

Well, maybe. I'm not completely sure I like it yet. Its not that I don't like it, I think its pretty cute. However, I also think its just a touch too big so I'm considering frogging it and making it again with smaller needles. But then maybe Irish girls and berets just don't mix after all.

suffer for fashion

I'm done! I have loads of civ pro homework to do for tomorrow, but the important thing is that I'm done! I just finished the Tilted Duster from the Fall IK. Unfortunately, none of the batteries for my camera feel like working right now. So pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

So what's next? Well, I'm also working on Le Slouch in a pretty purple, and that should be finished soon if they stitches ever stop slipping off my dpns. Luckily, I've started the decreases and this shouldn't be a problem for too much longer.

I've also done some major supporting of my new LYS. I have projects in my mind for all the new yarn so I don't feel too guilty about splurging a bit.

Pictures coming soon, I promise.

two at a time

So how does a busy a law student managed to get all her homework done and still find time for knitting?

Very easy jobs apparently.

Working in the law school bookstore isn't very demanding it turns out. Everyday I pack up my backpack to bring to work with books and my computer but no yarn. At work there is often nothing to do but sit behind counter and stare off into space, however instead of staring at nothing or obsessing over how much coffee is left I actually do homework. Of course sometimes the temptation to refold the sweatshirts is overwhelming when faced with personal jurisdiction and estoppals but then I think, "If I get through this, if I survive, than I can knit all evening."

So far this tactic seems to be working, because I'm getting my homework done and plenty of knitting. I've finished the back and fronts of the tilted duster and now I'm making good headway on the sleeves. I've already done 4 of the 7 increase rows so I'm making steady progress, and am really quite pleased with myself.

Now if only I could get myself to work on my SKB or that sweater for my sister I'd be all set.

makes me wonder

All right, so here's my shooping tunic. It's all done, and in under week. Too bad it looks better on my bed than on me. The cowl neck is a little too floppy, and its just HUGE. I didn't think it was that big looking at other FOs but I felt a little silly when I tired it on because of the neck. Seriosuly, it just wasn't working for me.

I'm not completely giving up hope. Perhaps if I wash it and everything it will look better. Maybe? Please?

Hopefully, my titled duster will turn out better. I got the yarn earlier this week, and I just love the color. It has touches of all sorts of other shades through out it. So when you look at it from far away it looks like a plain tan, but close up it has reds and purples and yellows playing through the fabric.

My guage was off, and 16 sts/4ins instead of 17 on size 9s. But I can't really go down to 8s because my 8s are kind of broken. So I had been planning to make the 36" size but now I'm going to make the smallest size which with my guage should give me about a 34" finished size instead, which is actually more of I wanted anyway. So we'll see if I can actually make a sweater that I like this time.

take what ya take

So what happens when you're two days ahead on your homework and you have a whole Sunday with nothing to do?

Lots and lots of knitting. Or finishing as the case may be.

I've finally finished my blackberry, or perhaps I should call it strawberry. It only took me 3 months and that's with about half that time no work being done on her at all. The only modification I made was leaving off the bobbles, because I'm just not a fan of those things.

It's been a couple days now and she's still drying from the blocking. However, I did give her a quick try before blocking and I am happy to say that I did not look like a strawberry in it. She was quite cute actually, it'll be the perfect sweater for wearing around the apartment on those chilly days when I'm too cheap to turn up the thermostat.

Next to my strawberry is another calorimetry. I got a hair cut yesterday that I'm not overly thrilled with and decided that headbands will be a good accessory until I feel like risking the scissors again. On the plus side, I now have a cute headband that matches my sweater.

I'm still waiting for my Peruvia for the tilted duster, but in the mean time I've casted on for the Shopping Tunic. I'm using wool-ease in charcoal since that's the only super bulky yarn that I can afford, but I'm still excited about it.

Power Out

Yikes, this is sad. It's been since June that I last posted?!

Well despite my abscene from blogging I have been knitting. I made this adorable little guy for my friend Scott's birthday. Since taking this picture my little hedgehog got eyes, a nose, and went to his new home where he is loved very much. He was quite the talk of the evening. Apparently, most people are not aware that you can knit a hedgehog.

I've also been working on knitty's blackberry. My camera doesn't feel like working so no picture right now sadly, but all I need to do is seem it up and add the border.

Next on the list is IK's tilted duster. I've ordered the recommended Peruvia in a beautiful tan color that has hints of purple, red, and green in it. Hopefully, it'll get here soon.

I'm also going to start the shopping tunic as soon as I get the pattern. So right now my knitting consists of a lot of waiting around, but I'll up and going again soon.

Nice Guys Finish Last

At long last I have finished the socks for my brother. And it only took 8 months or so. I am definitely not a sock knitter. All those tiny little stitches get a bit discouraging after awhile.

Now on to newer and better projects. I ordered the hedgehog pattern the other night so I'll be starting that once it gets here. I also cast on for Knitty's Blackberry today using that red yarn that I've had forever. It's nice to be knitting with big needles, I feel like I've already gotten a fair amount done.

Call it in the Air

Yikes! So its been awhile since I last posted, I know. Its been a pretty busy month. I did finish the Clementine Shawlette in time for Mother's Day, and had every intention of posting a finished picture but I forgot to do that before I gave it to her. But She loved it. My graphing of the two ends together came out a bit wonky though, so I guess I need to work on that :-/

Since then I finished a calorimetry, which is a gift for a friend of mine who's birthday is in July. I really wanted something that was quick to knit because I fell like I've really fallen behind on the knitting recently. So this was the perfect little project for me. The yarn is Lamb's Pride in I forget what color. It was a partial skein that I've had laying around for awhile. But my friend likes purple so hopefully she'll like this, and I may even have enough of the skein to make another one if I feel like it.

The little red swatch there is Kraemer Yarns Mauch Chunky in Strawberry. I've had this yarn sitting around forever with no idea what to do with it. The swatch knit up at 3sts to the inch on size 6mm needles, any suggestions? Because I still have no idea what to do with it...

Earlier this week I also went out and bought yarn for a new project. This stuff is for the Fibertrends Huggable Hedgehog. A friend of mine has been saying for years that he wants to get a pet hedgehog, but he still has yet to do so. So when I came across this adorable pattern I knew I had to make it for him. His birthday isn't until September, but this is another project that really need to be on time so I want to get an early start on it. Actually, I can't really start it yet because I don't have the pattern. I need to order it from somehwere because none of my lys carry the pattern. But if I'm going to pay shipping for this I want to get yarn too, I just haven't decided what yarn to get though - hence the delay.

If You Don't, Don't

I can hear it know: "Quizes?!" you prostest, "Where's the knits?!"
Well, the knitting is not going too well right now, in that its not really going. Due to an upcoming final and two 10 page papers I haven't been able to knit. So instead I present the best knitting quizes I found while procstinating.


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What kind of yarn are you?

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.
Take this quiz!








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What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are "turbo" charged.Fast moving and classy, you get things done with power and grace. Your expensive tastes can be deceiving, since what you really value is quality and efficiency. As you're careening around those corners in life, finishing a dozen knitted objects each month, stop and smell the roses. Don't miss the beauty of process!
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Here it Goes Again

So despite finishing my thesis, Spree Day, a 5-page paper, and a journal for class in the past few weeks I still managed to find time to work on the Clementine Shawlette. This is going to be a mother's day gift. It's actually about half way done right now, which means I now have to cast on for the other end of it. The yarn is Frog Tree Pima Silk which has been really nice to work with. My guage is loose, as always, but I like the way its coming out and I should have enough yarn to finish it.

On a completely different note, OK GO is amazing live. Of course, I love the CDs too, but I saw them Friday night at WPI and they put on the best show I've been to in a while. At one point they came into the middle of the crowd and performed a couple songs (A Million Ways and Maybe this Time) accoustic, how cool is that!? I highly recommend going to see them if you ever have the choice.

Oh Lately It's So Quiet

I know its been awhile since I updated. I've been crazy busy with finishing up my thesis and other school work. I actually don't even have time to do a decent update right now since I'm going to see one of my friends in 'Romeo & Juliet' in just a few minutes.

But here is a recent addition to my statsh Nashua Creative Focus worseted. Mmmm, pretty. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it yet. It will most likely become a sweater, possibly the cable dowan raglan, or the bluebell boatneck in Fitted Knits.

You're So Damn Hot

Oh yea, you know its hot. Its Artyarns Royal Silk in color 126. I ordered it during the massive sale that was at knithappens.com a couple weeks ago. It seems to take forever for them to send it out, but I heard they had over 5,000 orders so that's understandable. This little bit of goodness and joy arrived on Friday and I did the swatch this afternoon. It dried pretty quickly after I blocked it, and this is the result. The gauge is 4 1/2 stitches per inch (18 over 4ins) on 4.5 mm bamboo needles.

It arrived in a very pretty skein that with a bit of time and patience I was able to turn into a cute little ball. The picture of the ball probably represents the color the best, though the swatch shows off the variations in the color very nicely. Its wonderfully soft and delicate. I'm planning on making a shrug for my graduation with it. possibly the one skein wonder, though I would have to adjust the pattern for my gauge. I feel that the fabric would be too loose if I do the recommended gauge of 16sts/4ins. Though I might look around a bit more to see if I find something a bit more gauge apporiabte before I purschase the pattern just to make sure I can't find something else.

In other news I'm almost done with the body of my SKB. Painfully almost done, like just one more purl ridge almost done. Pictures of that some other time though since I'm feeling a wee bit lazy. I also tired it on. It was a bit tighter than what I was expecting, but I think with blocking I can stretch it out a bit and it'll be fine.

No Sign of Life

Sometimes things just get neglected and forgotten. This poor sweater here looks done, doesn't it? But, alas, no. It's been put by the wayside for the past few weeks. Mostly because I got bored with it and I was uncertain about the sleeve decrease. Did I do enough? Are they too spaced out? I just don't know. And so the sweater waits and waits, until I'm interested again.

However, that won't be a for a while because I have projects with deadlines. Yep. As soon as the yarn gets here I will be casting on the Clementine Shawlette for my mother, it's going to be her mother's day gift. Also I'll be making a shrug of some nature for my graduation and to wear to my cousin's wedding this summer. If I had more time I would have loved to make the butterfly dress from Romantic Style, but alas again. I also don't have the money to buy the book. (but I do have I don't have the yarn for this one yet either, but it needs to be done in a month in order to be ready for graduation. So some of my poor knits are going to put aside for awhile for other things. *sadface*

Tiny Little Fractures

What do you get when you buy really cheap needles off of ebay? Needles that break in the middle of the project, like this...Fortunately I won't be needing them much longer. The lace section of my SKB is complete. I've managed to salvage the needles by using packing tape to connect the severed needle and tube, but this is kind of annoying since the yarn keeps getting caught on the tape. I blame the tight gauge on this one, it makes the knitting rougher on me, the yarn, and the needles. I bent the needle a little bit too while doing this.

And well of course I'm going to include a little more UConn goodness. I might just start doing this for every post. This is the goody folder that I got at admitted students day.

It's Only Divine Right

On The Table

So I finally have some progress shots of what I've been knitting recently so without further ado I present to you... the Simple Knitted Bodice!
Isn't it pretty? The one on the left is when I tired it on after finishing the increases. I picked the XS so I was terrified that it would be too small, but I was equally afaird of the S being too big, but it fit perfectly when I tired it on. The trying on was about a week ago and since then I've joined it and started the lace section. I've finished the first repeat of it and it looks pretty, though I don't particularly like knitting with size 3mm needles and a worsted weight yarn.
I didn't even realize how tight I was knitting though until I was watching House last night and picked up my brother's socks. For the first time ever I actually enjoyed knitting with size 0 needles. I was able to get a couple inches of them done, so they're just under 4 ins now, and hopefully while I'm in the newspaper office tonight I can get some more done in between editing sections.

And finally for some recent statsh enhancing purchases. There have been a few good sales going on recently and I just couldn't resist stocking up. However, I do projects in mind for everything that I ordered. This is some Cotton Fleece I got from yarnware.com a couple weeks ago. The color is Praire Lupine and I'm imaging either a Rusted Root or Green Gable from zephyr would be lovely, but I'm currently using the needles I need for the SKB so I have some time to make this decision. I also took part in the massive sale that was going at knithappens.com, but more about that when the order gets here. Suffice to say its pretty, really, really pretty.

blah

So finally I've motivated myself to do an update about what I do over spring break. Spring break was two weeks ago, but part of this delay could be because blogger and my computer don't always seem to get along. But right now I have a cold so I can't really focus on my work because I either feel too crapy or am too doped up on dayquil to concentrat.

Anyway...

HAT! This is my new favorite. And I even got to wear it in the freak snow storm last weekend so it didn't have to wait around until next winter to get some use. I loved this yarn so much, its so soft and shiny. I still have a bit of yarn left over from this skein and another full one so next I need to figure out what I'm going to do with those, a matching scarf perhaps?

Yarn: Patons SWS in Natural Gernaium
Needles: size 8 dpns bamboo

This here is my first foray into lace knitting. Its the Molly Headband from IK Summer 2006, I think. I could be wrong about that date. I had a bit of an issue with reading the lace chart at first, but managed to get the hang out it and am quite pleased with the results. It was also a nice statsh buster b/c I had some Cotton Fleece lying around from a Loop-d-Loop ballet t-shirt that I just wasn't sure what to do with and I hate throwing things away. So this was awesome though I still have a teeny bit of that CF lying around...
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles: Size 4 bamboo

Busy Child

Here is what I consider my crowning achievement as of date. I know its simple, a deep v-neck sweater what's the big deal? Well its the first sweater I made w/o a pattern. After reading the Wool Works pattern and a basic top down pattern by Glampyre I felt brave enough to cast on and start knitting. It took awhile but I learned a lot from it. I finished this back in January. It's a little scratchy, but it's incredibly warm luckily since I was wearing it when my coast got stolen when I was out with friends. Anyway, since this one turned out so well I'm now knitting another patternless top down raglan for my sister. Don't you just love the shot of my dorm bathroom, btw?

Socks that I knit over the summer. I completely forget the pattern and yarn I used, but they came out rather too big because I forgot to check the guage.





My awesome red hat, I've been wearing this thing non-stop all winter. Made with Mauch Chunky yarn in strawberry on size 10 1/2 dpns. It's loosely based on the beehive hat in SNBN. I think I cast on about 60 sts for this one. The stitch pattern is something like 3 rounds purl, 2 knit, 1 purl, 2knit, repeat.



My experiment with yarn dyeing over the summer. I used Kool
Aid for the purple and pink, the blue is Wilton's food coloring. The colors remind me of sweet tarts. I'm still not sure what to make with this. It's superwash wool so I can't felt it, maybe a hat or something...