Wednesday, November 23, 2005

remember??

So, you remember how I said I gotta get me some Moda Dea Dream (no affiliation!) to make something for me? Remember that? Huh? Probably not, since I'm reasonably sure nobody reads this... but anyway, it was on sale this week for $3 at Michael's. Yummy! Yummy! Awww yeah! So now I have some and I'm planning to make a hat or something. You know. Something soft. I'll just start knitting and see how far it takes me. I got like five skeins. Mom and I also bought a bajillion skeins of Wool-Ease worsted, and yes, I know i'm not wool's biggest fan but it's dirt cheap and seems to be softer than plain old acrylic. And for a couple of newbie knitters like us, dirt cheap is the right price. Har har. I'm gonna make myself a sweater in Diet Coke colors (grey, white, black, and red)... Of course I need to finish up the armwarmers first but... uh. They just are going slowly. But I'm almost through with the knitting of the first one (with the easy part of it anyway), and now I need to do the thumb and the duplicate stitching and stuff. Only I can't do that yet because I'm not sure which is the front and which is the back. Also it's a little annoying because the instructions are written with the assumption that you're using five needles instead of four, which is cool, but I only have four #3 dpns so I have to do some extra math to figure out where increases and stuff go. It's not THAT big an obstacle, but enough to make me set it aside a bit more often than I might otherwise.

Monday, November 21, 2005

snuggles


So my cats found something to do with the aborted sweater that's been lying around:
A nice soft bed~! Also Banzai's been having a lot of fun playing with the yarn tail that's sticking out. It's almost as great as a twisty tie!


Work in progress: a pair of armwarmer for my sister's Christmas gift. It's the Snowball's Chance in Hell pattern from anticraft.com and so far I think it looks lumpy. But I enjoy the yarn (Sirdar Snuggly DK) as it's stretchy and soft... it has nylon and I think nylon is the best thing in the world. And it's not all ITCHY and SCRATCHY like animal fibers. I don't understand the "I only use wool!" Mindset people have, because to me it's like self-flagellation. I have ways to punish myself that don't involve knitting wool garments.
This is the progress I've made so far. I think I need to take a break and knit something with some big needles that will go fast and make me feel proud of myself.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Happy Birthday to me...

My birthday presents this year included:
The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns
The 2006 Knitting Pattern-a-day Calendar
and the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle set.
Hooray!!!!
I had read various opinions on the Denise vs. the Boye set and had decided to go with Denise, though for the past several months I've been using a few individual Boye pieces that I'd bought at Hobby Lobby... WOW are the Denise ones better! They weigh less and the cables are so flexible! It's a billion times easier to work with them than with the Boye ones! Plus, the cables don't have to SCREW into the needle tips, and so they also don't screw out. Plus they're easier to get a grip on--the aluminum of the Boye needles is so hard to hold firmly while I try to screw the stupid little cables in, and it would be kinda nice to get some leverage on the needles themselves...
so anyway, that's my two cents.
I'm currently working on a case for Rachel's GB DS, and I'm using some Moda Dea dream that I grabbed at H.L. for a discounted price (missing the labels) and OMG this stuff is SO FREAKIN' SOFT that I definitely need to make something for myself out of it. Yummy yummy yarn.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The Sweater Mess


from far away it looks like less of a disaster, I guess, and I do like the stripey effect of the yarn even if I'm thinking that it looks pukey up close. I shouldn't have used Homespun... it's a mess to knit with and it's falling apart and the pattern tells me to pick up 143 stitches around the placket opening and there are not that many stitches there, so I'm unsure how to proceed. I'm following Mom's advice and setting it aside, working on something I currently hate less. It may be the time of year and the fact that I just keep aging (my 23rd birthday is TOMORROW) and have nothing to show for it, but I've had such a sense of "Why bother?" lately. And this damn homespun sweater ain't helping.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

better late than never.... right?

Some photos of things I have knit! Hurrah! They're taken against my sheets which are soft and a solid color, but not the best background... I'll have to figure something out there.

I made these armwarmers for myself and called them finished but they're unusable as they are--I need to thread elastic through the ribbing at the top (I should have used a smaller size needle, but I FAILED!), and I need to do something about the part at the hand because I don't like the rolling up. So they're still a work in progress.











Legwarmers for my cousin Grace. She rides her bike to school every morning and likes to wear skirts rather than pants, so her legs get cold. I haven't gotten to see them on her yet. I made them of Wool-ease chunky, and did the whole thing in 2x2 ribbing because it's easy and stretchy. I hope they past muster!