Happy Late Birthday to Me!

Finals seriously messed with my birthday this year. Rather than actually celebrating on my birthday I took a final and celebrated the day before and after and the day after that. It was a birthday week rather than just a day. But because of the craziness I've neglected the poor little blog. Here are some pics of my bday loot, I really cleaned up this year.

Realizations

I'm coming to a realization. This is something that I suspected before. Lace scarfs are not the most exciting thing in the world to knit. They do have that vaguely addictive quality of there being a slight difference every now and then, but when you're trying to go through 440 yards of lace weight yarn even that get tedious.

Another important realization is that I will not have my mother's day gift done in time. To the right is the flame lace scarf from knit and tonic, which I intend to give my mom someday, like in June when I'm not spending as much quality time in the library. Or maybe I'll have it done by her birthday in August. The surprise has already been spoiled since I worked on it last time I was home, but at least I know she'll like whenever its done. Of course, moms seem to like anything that you make them, I guess that's just part of the job.

FO! Springy Scraf

At long last I have another FO to post. This pretty little thing is the Gift of Friendship scarf by Christine McKnight. I used knitpicks shimmer in Happy Dance, which I believe has been discontinued, on size 4 needles. The lace pattern was very simple and easy to memorize as there are only two different rows. The yarn though was very slick and that made the knitting a little annoying at times. I would recommend this yarn though because its so wonderfully soft and it blocked very nicely.

Given the simplicity of the project this took a really long time for me to make, almost 2 months, but my goal was to use up all 440 yards of the shimmer which I did.

Next on my to do list? Well, yesterday I swatched for Green Gables so I think that's what next. I've had this yarn sitting around for about a year so its probably about time that used it.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles: size 7 in the round
Guage: 5sts/1in

I've only used Cotton Fleece once before for a Loop d Loop ballet tshirt. In that pattern I found the yarn to be very drapey, perhaps too drapey. I'm hoping that the tighter gauge of the tee will make it fit better. I also find Cotton Fleece to be a bit splitty at times, but nothing too annoying. But I do like how soft it is and the price doesn't hurt.

gettin springy with it

I love living in New England and having the four seasons. But towards the end of each I always have a hankering for the next. I love spring and all I want is for it to be May and for everything to be sunshine and flowers.

Perhaps this is reflected in my desire for new knitting projects. I'm tired of my Central Park Hoodie. I want it finished so I can making something light and fun for spring. So the other night I decided it was time to swatch.















Yarn: Classic Elite, Classic Silk
Color: light purple
Needle: 5
Guage: 5 sts/ 1in

Maybe this is because I don't work with much cotton, but I was rather surprised that the stitches grew a bit when I blocked my swatch. Working with this stuff was pretty nice, not too hard like some cottons and the swatch is pretty soft. My plan is to make Sahara with it.

Yet despite all that talk above about how much I long for spring I did just order 4 skeins of ultra alpaca to make the Minimalist Cardigan. I love that stuff so I just couldn't resist that Webs sale.

taste the rainbow

So last night I sat down to write a post and simply could not think of anything to write. I was so hopped up on diet cherry Pepsi and chocolate that mind was going 3,000 miles a minutes but it all went out too fast to make the connection down to my key broad. I don't have much sugar or caffeine in my daily diet so I can get a little wired when I do have some. Today I'm having a bit better luck with focusing thanks to the lack addictive substances in my system

Sadly, not much knitting has been going on the past few weeks. I did manage to finish these socks out of SWTC's tofutsies on size 2s. They're pretty basic, but I did make an eye partridge heel for the first time which is so pretty in the multi-color yarn. The SWTC It's really lovely stuff. Very soft and nice to work with. It's not nearly as tough on the hands as knitting with 100% cotton. It's even machine washable and didn't pool very much. I'm wearing them right now and even though they came out a touch big I really like them. Plus I might have enough of the skein left to make another short pair. Next time though I think I'll go down a needle size.

My other projects, however, feel never ending. All I want is to be done with them and move on to other things. More on them some other time, like when I don't need to finish my civ pro reading for tonight.

what the snowman learned

You probably can't tell from this picture but its snowing a bit here. Honestly, I love the snow and can never understand why everyone moans and groans when a snow storm comes this way. I think they're beautiful and could sit around watching the snow fall for hours if I didn't have a mountain of homework to do. Maybe its because I spent a good part of my childhood down south where I think it snowed about twice before we moved northward that I love it so much. Having grown up without snow makes it seem so much more special and magical to me when it happens. Or maybe I just love the opportunity to cuddle up in warm woolen knitwear that snow provides. If its the later then the snow has perfect timing because I now have some new FOs to keep warm in.

This shot shows both my new foliage and wicked. As so many have already discovered Wicked is a super cute and easy pattern. I made the second smallest size, though I probably could have made it the smallest since the sweater came out a little roomy. Yet its exactly what I wanted: cute, warm, and cozy. This is partially thanks to the Nashua Creative Focus I used which is 25% aplaca. The yarn is a touch itchy but with a cami underneath its fine.

I would recommend that for this this size you do one less increase round before separating the sleeves. The number of stitches I had for the sleeves and body were what they were suppose to be. However, these numbers didn't work as nicely they should have for the crossover rib at the end. Its a minor problem so I didn't go back and rib everything out just to fix this. But if I make another one I'll keep in mind that the math might not work out exactly as I like and will have to double check it.

Foliage though came out great. I do have one word of caution and have adopted a new rule: do not drink and knit. Especially if working on lace. Thursday night I went out, had a couple beers and somehow convinced myself that a shot of tequila was a good idea, possibly because a cute boy was buying. Another good rule would be to not let cute boys influence my alcohol intake but I doubt I'd actually pay attention to that one. Rather than crawling into bed and hoping for the best in the morning I decided to stay up, knit, and drink water. I'm too embarrassed to show what I did, but when I picked up my knitting the next day I was rather confused. I had to rip out a couple of rows to avoid some wonky looking lace.

And now I'm going to steal an idea from Green Apples, a blog that I just love and read all the time. Recently, Jess was explaining that one of the advantages of always posting about her swatches is that she can easily look up the information later on, which is truly an excellent point. So here goes...Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran
Colorway: 146
Needle: 7
Gauge: 4.5 sts/ 1in

I feel in love with this yarn when I made a hat with it for my mom. Its very soft and squishy, not the least bit itchy or scratchy. My mom reports that her hat is super warm and wearing well. So really this stuff is pretty much awesome, which is why I had to snatch some up when WEBs was having a sale on it recently. The swatch did grow a bit when I washed it. I believe it had originally knit up to 5sts/1in so it expanded just a bit. I purchased enough to make a sweater so I think I'm going to make the Central Park Hoodie. I've always loved the pattern but was just waiting for the perfect yarn to come my way and now here it is!

pink

As I turn out projects it gets harder and harder to deny that pink is my favorite color. I'm actually not sure if I bother to deny this since I'm not 12 and trying to be a tomboy anymore but that's besides the point.

What is the point? That I have new pink mittens. My favorite pink gloves are developing holes in the fingers, probably because I got them two years ago while I was London and have worn them nonstop ever since. So I decided it was time to figure out how to make mittens. I didn't really use a pattern so I messed up a little bit. The thumb either needs to be lower or the hand should be longer. But they'll do the job of keeping my hand warm when walking to and from school.

Also in the interest of keeping my extremities warm I decided to cast on for a pair of socks. Normally I don't do socks, but while picking out yarn with my mom we were both rather taken with SWTC's tofutsies. She offered to buy me a skien and who am I to turn down yarn? So now I'm knitting it and can't help but think that red, orange, and purple is kind of a bizarre color combination.

Seriously, who came up with it? I'm not entirely sure I like it. I like fun colors and all but this might be a little too fun. And it begs the very important question: who's crazier SWTC for dreaming it up and making it or me for picking it out?

Happy (late) New Year!!

Christmas was a success everyone liked their hand knit presents. Although I did decide to recall my brother's hat to add an extra 2 inches. Apparently he has a bigger than me (what a surprise ;).

With all the presents out of the way I'm back to making stuff for myself. Right now I'm working on a pair of mittens in SWS and a pink wicked, which is coming along nicely and a bit further than this shows. And of course I'm using my pretty new knitpicks options, which were a gift from my brother. I'm totally in love with them. I actually think that I'm knitting faster than I did with my old needles.




It seems to be the general custom around knitting blogs to make a list of accomplishments from the past year. I kind of like that idea. I don't feel like I've really I've accomplished all that much in the past year, but I did try and learn new things. So here we go...

Accomplishments of 2007
*completed my first patternless sweater
*learned short rows
*made my first lace project
*made my first sweater that I really love

What I hope to do in 2008
*conquer colorwork (or at least give it a try)
*make a larger lace project
*learn magic loop
*give socks another chance