Drats!

Last I posted I was all "ooh I have a project to tell you about" and I never did. Whoops. I totally thought I blogged it but I didn't. I Ravelry'd it but sorta forgot y'all over here.

What'd I make that was so exciting and thrilling? Oh nothing much. Just a pair of socks.

A PAIR OF FREAKING SOCKS. They're super cute too:


Whose favorite part is that one is significantly larger than the other? I now have to make Sock #3 so that #2 has a friend that's wearable. I don't know what I'll do w/#1. Despite the sizing/gauge issue, I'm damn impressed w/my ability to line up the stripes.

Another thing I love about socks? My teeny feet. I'm usually pretty stoked about it anyway b/c cute shoes don't hurt as much and they're always available in my size but this...this is huge. I can knit and knit away and it won't take as long.

The major drawback to this all is I generally hate wearing socks. Go figure.

Finally...

...the tree is down, y'all. PRAISE JESUS, right?

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, Al self-motivated and started ripping the tree apart one night. I, thankful, jumped into action and w/in 20 minutes The Tree was disassembled in the nick of time. I had already begun plans to cover it in shamrocks and mini pots of gold for St. Pat's day.

Good logic would tell you I haven't been knitting much either. Good Logic would be wrong, my friends. While Baby doesn't give a rat's ass about The Tree, she does care about The Knitting. It's a shame that Ravelry sucked the blogging life out of me though. I so enjoy this blog but I spend the time I used to devote to it (albeit only for a couple of weeks) on Ravelry now. I spend hours and hours looking at projects and patterns and yarn. Oh my!

I've completed quite a bit since October:

I made a shawl:

The pattern was easy as can be and a super quick knit but the yarn wasn't ideal for this project. It tends to be a little fuzzy so dropping the stitches irritated me. It sheds worse than my dog though. I can't wear it w/most anything I own b/c I'll be covered in fuzz. I should try washing it to see if that'll help. I don't wear it often b/c of this and b/c you can't see the pattern now. It tends to draw up on itself so it just looks like a wide scarf in stockinette. Bummer.

I made a red red red scarf. It's a basic 1x1 rib except I used three kinds of red yarn held together. It's beautiful and I Love It but OHMYGOD is it hot. It's great when it's cold but if it's above freezing, it's too much scarf. Also, my winter coat is green so I always look like Christmas in it. Perfect in Nov/Dec, not in January:



Al's Basket weave scarf was finished JUST in time for his birthday (1/15). I love it more than anything else I've made (except for the fleur de lis purse) b/c it's all sentimental. Best of all, HE loves it and is always sure to pass along compliments he receives. I got lucky and was off work the day prior to his birthday so I was able to finish it and make an attempt at knitting an earwarmer. That didn't go as well as the scarf :)

My model is less than thrilled yet easily bribed:

I'm just thrilled with this:
The headband is a little teeny but I'm able to squeeze it on my huge head. Fortunately Al has a smaller grape but thinks it's a little fruity so it doesn't get used. My feelings are far from hurt b/c I spent all of 20 minutes on the thing and he loves the scarf:

And one more b/c it makes me smile:

I finished Baby K's blankie and it's SO CUTE. Not as cute as Baby K, but cute nevertheless. Oh! Despite his early arrival, I still finished his blankie EARLY. No last-minute knitting this time!


I laced a sheer blue ribbon around the edge but realized later that it wasn't machine washable so it will have to go. Bummer. Mama, Daddy, and Baby all seemed to like it. Yay!

I jumped on the My so-called Scarf train and HOLY SHIT. Baby's over this pattern. It's so so slow and I don't know if it's me (likely) or the yarn or the pattern but at this rate, it'll be finished in time for NEXT winter. I'm using Noro Silk Garden in #227 and it's so so stunning. I'm in love with the colors. I do like how the stitch pattern shows off the yarn w/out overpowering it.

My current major issue, however, is the curving of the work. See:
What the hell? Look at how straight my needle is and how the scarf is making its way toward the wine rack. I feel that it will all be okay once I'm finished, but we'll see. In the mean time, it's bugging Baby.

That's my current project. I have a 1/3 of a dishcloth I started in November on the beach that I'd like to finish by Saturday for Grandma's birthday. We'll see.

I did finish a small project last night. I made a Baby Genius burp cloth from the Mason-Dixon book. Easy pattern, cheap yarn, great travel knitting. It's evident, however, I worked on this start-and-stop b/c one end is 1/2 inch wider than the other. Whoops.

In progress:
*Note the cute, green coat that doesn't go well with red red red scarf*


Notice how wonky the left side is. Killer :)

And finally, an injury and a near-casualty. Al, in dramatic fashion, leaves his empty lunchbox on the kitchen counter for me to fill with lunchy goodness. Most days I just roll my eyes and ignore his sad notes and pitiful behavior. Last night, however, I was feeling benevolent (American Idol was on) and went to make lunch. I saw a piece of plastic (or possibly ice as I had just filled up my cup) on top and brushed it away with my finger. OWIE! Yeah. That wasn't plastic or ice. It was glass and Baby got hurt :(

The offending object:
*Note the pink sheen to it. That'd be Baby's Blood.*

I quickly fashioned a bandage out of papertowel and tape and went about my business. Part of my business was now NOT making Al lunch since his lunch box tried to kill me.

Back to the couch and American Idol! The bleeding stopped (you'd be surprised how much a little cut like that will gush!) and I began to bind off the burp cloth. Noticed the needle felt sticky but whatev. That happens. Looked down and whatthehell. I bled on my bind off edge:
Granted, it's not THAT much blood, but it's still blood. My DNA is IN this burp cloth. Looks like we have a new kitchen towel!

Baby's not happy about her injury and word on the street is she's milking it for all it's worth:

That's one sad Baby. And yes, that's a Knight Light behind me. Clever, no?

All I'm sayin...

...is that I'm finished! Baby's tired!


I have GOT to get in bed. We're going to Keeneland tomorrow to celebrate Tracey's 35th so I must be fresh for the ponies!!

I'll post more after I've squandered all my money away!

Pictures Pictures!

Before I dashed off to work this morning (err....afternoon) I snapped some pictures of what's on the needles and what I've finished lately:

My coworker is having a baby boy in early December. Her husband was in the Army and he's really into hunting and all that business...so of course the baby needs a camo blankie!

I'm using Lion Brand's Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket with Red Heart's Super Saver in Camo doubled on #11 straights. I have a feeling that I'm going to run out of room on the needles. I have 52 (I think) stitches on the needles right now and need to double that to get the blankie the size I want. I guess you just cram them on, right?

*Note how that chair in the background looks so...loved. That's Maddy's homebase. Normally she's there but Mommy had opened the curtains for her so she could sun her sweet belly.*

It's a simple pattern once you get started: K3, yo, knit to end of row. After you get it as big as you want, you start the decreases. The yo gives that cute border and I love love the diagonal of it all. I loathe casting on b/c I never pull out enough tail and then when I pull out a lot, it's way too much and I waste yarn. HATE. This way, I only had to cast on 5 stitches and will only have to bind off that many too.

It's working up pretty quickly too. I did what's on the needles in about three hours total time. Not bad considering I was watching "America's Next Top Model" and a myriad of other "trash TV" as Al so lovingly calls it.

You can see the yo better in this pic:

It's not really all wonky and curved. It's crammed on that needle and won't lie flat.

And to see how thick it is...it's going to be really cozy. I hope the baby likes!!


I also took some pics of Al's scarf. Still no word if they can get the yarn for me or not :( Baby's displeased.

Isn't it pretty? I love how the sides are wavy. And closeup so you can see what a sloppy knitter I am :)

I really want to work on this more b/c I love the pattern but since I'll be putting the "new" ball of yarn in the middle, I'm stuck.

The irresponsible amount of cotton yarn I ordered:


Those are 1lb cones in apple green, black, brown, white, black/white/gray, pink/yellow/green, shades of brown, pink/white/black. There are also some small leftovers that I'll eventually make one big dishtowel out of when I get enough. I also have a cone of a lovely cream/brown/blue/lime that's in the travel bag. It goes to doctor's offices, car trips, etc. I toss them in big plastic zipper bags, cut off the end and knit out of it. Keeps the dog hair at bay. I love Maddy but not everyone wants Maddy all up in their dishcloths.

Some finished ballband dishcloths:

There are a few more floating around but Baby just does not have the time nor energy to find those suckers. The two in the center were my "Damnit, I'm knitting two dishcloths on this trip!" cloths. The one on the right I managed to do last Sunday whilst Al and I traversed Southern Indiana and Bardstown, KY. Baby's a prodigy, no? hahaha

Oh and this knitting in lieu of eating business is gonna work I think. I knitted on that blanket last night/this morning instead of digging through the fridge for something I didn't need. Yay!

Measure twice, sew twice

So we're all clear: Baby doesn't sew.

As mentioned earlier, when I sew, I "sew." I iron that stitch witchery stuff between the edges and call it done. I had lofty plans of doing something similiar with lining the felted bag.

I had to work today at noon so I had a couple of hours more than usual this morning to piddle around. I downed half a pot of coffee and was ready to get to work. I measured my bag and made notes. Then I measured again and confirmed. Damn I'm good at measuring. I went on a wild search for the magic stitch witch stuff and could NOT find it. I think Maddy hid it from me. :(

Since I now had it in my head that I had to line the bag TODAY, I got cozy with the idea of hand sewing the lining. I had figured out that the easiest way to do this would be to cut a length of fabric to make a tube of sorts for the sides of the bag (only one seam) and then a square for the bottom. Easy enough.

Noooot so much. Since I gave myself a generous seam allowance, my liner was to big. Crap. So I had to sew it again. After that, however, it fit perfectly and I was ready to attach it. That went well until my hands cramped up. Baby's too delicate to be a seamstress.

I picked a pretty peacock color. I thought it along with the silky material would make a nice contrast. In hindsight, I really wish I had found a nice pink or something lighter.



And so you may see my terrible stitches...

Maddy doesn't give a shit. She just wishes that bag had kibble in it!

Feltin' Baby

I'm a stubborn only child and thought, foolishly, that I could teach myself to knit just by reading a book. Ha! Baby's funny too!!

I have a handful of books but the one that was most helpful was Stitch 'n Bitch. By far, it was the most clear and entertaining book I'd laid my little hands on. It's also what my LYS's Knitting for Dummies class was based on.

Since my first class with my LYS went so well, I signed up for the Felted Bag class right away. Class was on Wednesday night and I finished the knitting Thursday. I'm a prodigy. ;)

I felted last night and while nervewracking, it went well! I'd done a lot of reading ahead online about what to do and what no to do, so I was well-prepared.

We knitted the Meema's Marsupial Tote from the Stitch 'n Bitch book for those interested.

Before felting:

After two trips in the short cycle:

As you can tell, it shrunk up quite a bit but I think I could have let it go more but I really didn't want it to shrink THAT much.

Up close of the felting:

And because I'm so effin impressed with myself right now, one more:

I'm a teeny bit disappointed I didn't felt more, but I think I sorta like how it turned out. I could always felt it more...we'll see.

Oh and for those of you who know what the hell you're doing, note my huge mistake in the form of a garter stitch band around the middle. Since I'd never worked with circulars before I screwed up. When I got home from class, I started knitting but did so backwards and was three and a half rounds in before I noticed. I made it an even four and then went back to doing it right. Al thinks it looks intentional and I like it. By some miracle of the Knitting Gawds, it's right in the middle of the green. Go fig.

Despite my lack of sewing skills, I'm going to sew a liner into this over the weekend. When Baby sews, she irons that stitch witchery stuff and calls it's a day. I'm pretty sure I can't do that with wool :) I hope to find a cute non-matchy matchy pattern of fabric that's cheap and see what happens. I mean, how hard can it be, right? I so have this.

Oh! And as far as the class goes...our homework was to get up to where we changed colors and then we'd tackle the rest this coming up Wednesday. Whoops. Baby's an overachiever and was OUT OF CONTROL. I couldn't stop myself. Fortunately, the teacher is a doll and the other woman in the class won't be there. I'm hoping I can either start another bag (maybe another pattern) or pick up some new skills. We shall see!!!

I'll post pics of the bag when it's all lined and ready for its close up!

Ballband dishcloth craze

In all my obsessive internet searching, I came across Mason-Dixon Knitting. I instantly fell in love. After I got my bearings back, I drove my cute self to Walmart and Hobby Lobby in search of #7 needles and fun, bright cotton yarn.

Per usual, I wasn't failed. I bought a half dozen balls of bright, fun colors along with some metal #7 needles, and a few other notions. I had previously printed out the ballband pattern and was determined to tackle it.

My novice skills were tested! I didn't know how to read patterns well, slip stitches were foreign but I was going to kick this pattern's ass.

And you know what?? I did!

Fraternal twins:

I instantly fell in lust. The only thing I didn't like was the size. I did Hard Math and figured I could cast on 39 instead of 45 and my dishcloths would still be big enough but not THAT huge.

Al and I recently too a road trip to aforementioned sorority sister's wedding and I set a goal of knitting two dishcloths in the car. Never mind we sat in the car for 5 minutes in front of our townhome the night we arrived so I could bind off -- I made my goal :)

I've now made 5 of these dishcloths and decided they'd make perfect Christmas gifts! I bought an irresponsible amount of cotton yarn from Elmore Pisgah (makers of my beloved Peaches 'n Cream cotton yarn) in a variety of colors and have quite the project ahead of me.

Oh and in the spirit of full disclosure, my shitty math skills caused me to order twice as much yarn as I need. Thank goodness this stuff is inexpensive and handy else I'd be pissed!

Stay tuned for more Ballbands!

Warshrags

Yeah. I said it. Warshrag. WARSH. Do y'all have any idea how much that word hurts me? I think my left index finger is cramping from reaching for the "R" key. Baby calls them dishcloths and that's what she'll continue to call them. This warshrag business...I just can't go there.

Moving onward.

I decided that while I wanted to expand my knitting skills, I didn't want to waste time and good money on expensive yarn. Whatever is a girl to do?? I sweet-talked Al into being a Big Strong Man and carrying my tote o' yarn up from the depths of the basement. Inside I found some looooovely cotton yarn. I got to knitting and made some pretty stinkin cute dishcloths:

Seed stitch:

Basketweave (I winged this one. Baby couldn't read patterns at this point):
Pretttttty cute :) I was delighted with myself. I just HAD to buy more yarn! HAD TO. I made a quick lunch-break trip to Walmart and got some pretty pretty colors and started pouring over the internets for good ideas.

What I found was a beauuuuuutiful scarf pattern, the Ballband Dishcloth craze, and lots of things that were too hard for me. Oh and I found Knitting Help. This site is badass. It's gotten me through a lot of rough times.

In the midst of all this my favorite LYS held their annual Huge Sale. I was drawn to it like White Trash to Twinkies. Al was sweet and went along (conveniently enough, his favorite coffee shop is next door) and picked out some nice, manly gray yarn for himself. I purchased 2 balls and was off! Oh and I bought a half dozen balls of Alpaca for meeeee but who's keeping track of that?? ;)

So I have yarn and nothing to do with it. The horror! Back to this beauuuuuuuuutiful scarf pattern...It's lovely. It required minimal pattern-reading skills (handy since I have zero), was simple, AND looked really really hard (key when you're Egotistical Baby). I didn't want to break out the gray stuff yet, so I whipped up a dishcloth in the pattern. I had a sorority sister (I told y'all I was in the south!) getting hitched and thought handknits would be a fantastic gift! I just happened to have cotton yarn in "our colors" so I started in on the beauuuuuutiful scarf pattern on this cotton yarn. One and a half pattern repeats later I had this:


It's too bad you can't REALLY see the pattern b/c of the variegation of the yarn, but you get the idea. The beauuuuuutiful scarf has scalloped, rolling edges and is just so so so darn pretty. And Manly. Don't forget, my hunky, Big Strong Man Al is going to be wearing this scarf.

Anyway, dishcloths need friends so I made another seed stitch one to go with it, shoved a Walmart gift card in the center and tied a white ribbon around it all. Thoughtful, inexpensive and useful. Baby is unstoppable.

Oh but she's not...I hope my foreshadowing of the beauuuuuutiful scarf disaster wasn't too subtle...because things make a terrible turn for the worse very very soon...

The First FO

At my Knitting for Dummies class, we were supplied with some Clover bamboos in #11 and our choice of colors in Lamb's Pride Bulky. Baby chose Tiger Lily which is a lovely soft orange. It doesn't clash against my red hair or pale, splotchy skin. It's almost flattering!

Class was on a Tuesday night and I knitted and purled my little heart out for two hours. Then I came home, practiced my stitches and poked Al with my knitting needle. Oh how I enjoy knitting. I always have a weapon in my hand. Before I just swatted him away with my hand but now I can stab and smack him. His love for me grows with every smack, swat and dropped stitch.

I was off work the next day because my Daddy was scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery. It sounds so vile saying "My Daddy" but I'm southern and that's what I call my father. He's my Daddy not my daddy. Y'all know the difference.

Anyhoo, I seized the opportunity and practiced my stitches in the waiting room. Mama tried her best to ignore me. I think she's tired of my craftiness. I out Grandma her anyday. Now, before any of you start speculating a la People magazine, Baby doens't have a baby. She has a dog. One very cute, very spoiled, very obstinate dog.

After two or so feet, I grew tired of garter ridges and stockinette so off I went into ribbing. It worked and looked like "real" knitting. So I frogged all my practice stitches and began a 2x2 ribbed scarf. It took about two weeks because Baby is easily distracted. Her little fingers were very out of shape and would hurt after too much knitting action.

In the spirit of being ancient, Mama had a pesky ovary removed and that afforded Baby more Waiting Room Knitting. I finished up my scarf whilst Daddy leaned over and asked me questions. He's not intimidated in my craftiness! Fortunately he's the Manliest of Men and I'll never have to knit him a scarf. I wonder if there's a pattern out there for a shotgun cozy? That'd make a great Christmas pressie!

The fruit of my labor:

Nestled into it's new home...

And sprawled on the kitchen counter so that you may enjoy the ribby goodness.

How's that for a knitty newb? :) Baby likes.