So many pictures.

Heh heh heh.
These are very belatedly posted, even though they were finished and given to their recipients before Christmas. But... uh... well, no time like the present to post them!


And I'd like to say that Ravelry has inspired me to get on the ball about this stuff (I can be found there as Angeluhh) but it didn't. It was Cutie. I took some cute pictures of him with my parents' camera today and then borrowed said camera to get the pictures off it and found our Christmas pictures too.



Cutie turned 19 on July 4th and he's my inspiration. I thought he looked super sweet rolled up like that. I love you Cutie.

But here are some things Ravelry DID inspire me to photograph (I am so bad at the taking pictures):
Needle Roll that I made when I'd just started knitting.



And my Shapely Tank that I've been wearing a LOT this summer (see that unfortunate color pooling? Yeeeeah.):


And finally, my Lutea Lace-Sleeved Shell, which I've also been wearing a lot but which I washed in the washer making it fuzzy. I need shots of me actually wearing these but something > nothing, yes?


And now finally, my Work-in-Progress.

I love the way this yarn looks in the feather & fan pattern, and it's easy enough I can work it in front of the TV or whatever. The only concern I have is that my yarns so far are two different dye lots, but that didn't really dawn on me until I had gotten quite far into skein #2 and said, "Oh my, these don't quite match." I'm debating whether it's noticeable enough to rip out... which I do not want to do.

a wip

I cast on 288 stitches for this, which will become a tunic (knock on wood) and am working feather & fan pattern in the round. All was going smoothly until one of my Denise cables did this:

Well. After a brief moment of panic, I started right at work rescuing the piece. Victory! As for the cable, the Denise people are pretty great about that, so I'll send it off and get my replacement pretty soon. My only concern is that this has happened before. I don't think I'm a particularly rough knitter...

Edit: 288 was way too many stitches. Gotta rip.

Yarn porn, and a wee little FO

Admire my photographic (total non-) skills.

This is Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton, in color 83 (sage). It's worsted weight, but seems quite a lot thicker than other worsteds I've used. So far I'm using 8s and getting about 3.25 st/inch. Am I counting right? sacre bleu. But oh man is it soft.

Story time!
I have been using Dove body wash for like uber-sensitive skin with no perfumes or anything, and that's all well and good, except that the new bottle it comes in has a lid that's difficult to remove, and I usually like to use "Lotion Saver" bottle couplers to get the last bits of stuff from one bottle to the next so less gets wasted. But with lids that don't like being removed (or replaced once removed) and that lack the standard bottle threading that makes the lotion saver a viable tactic, that gets a little tricky. Not to mention, Dove is made by Unilver and they've made no promises (as far as I know) to, say, not torture animals in the name of testing their products. Add to that the fact that, even though the plastic bottles are recyclable, reduction is still always better. So I decided to go with bar soap. Specifically, Dr. Bronner's, a bar of which I picked up at Sun Harvest, in peppermint scent (one that's never caused me allergic reactions!). I was drawn to it because it's 100% cruelty-free, uses fair-trade ingredients, and has hemp oil, and I'm a huge fan of hemp.
I was feeling all good, but then I couldn't find my soap-saving sack thing from way back. Therefore, I made one. And none of the patterns online really satisfied me. I wanted to knit one because I like knitting, and crochet projects never really work out well for me. Plus, I wanted to use nylon yarn that I have lying around, and most of what I was finding called for worsted-weight cotton, which is great stuff, but takes forever to dry. So I just winged it. Wung it? Wang?

Sorry about that unsightly shadow. Anyway, it's pretty simple. Size four needles. Turkish cast-on 24 stitches (12 wraps), did a couple rounds stockinette then switched to seed-stitch until it was long enough, then a couple more st st rounds, a round of yo, k2tog, a couple more st st rounds, and bound off with a sz 9 so it wouldn't be too tight to get the soap in there. And it fits perfectly. And I already used it too, and it works great. Is it my imagination or did I get cleaner this morning than ever before? Dudes, my SOUL is cleaner.
That's probably the hemp talking.

Oh, one more thing: Those socks I made, they were only 40% wool, and superwash at that, but apparently even THAT is enough to irritate my stupid feet so FINE. I give up! I will seriously never try knitting wool things for myself ever again!

shaken, not stirred.

Ugh. Is the little pop-up on the blogger dashboard (even though your blogs are already showing) a phishing thing? Because I fell for it. And kept on falling for it. And then I thought, "Oh, I'm already logged in... OH DAMN."
That's neither here nor there as I have taken care of it.
Now! I recklessly spent a chunk of my paycheck on an Ultimate Sweater Machine. I had a 50% off coupon for Joann's and ... well... I am weak. I like toys. Especially knitting-related toys. And possibly my least favorite knitting to do is back-and-forth stockinette (that's just knitting; as far as finishing, well, I hate ALL that).
It arrived today and I wasted no time in setting it up and beginning to knit with it. Only AFTER that did I watch the video that came with it, which is mind-numbingly boring. I watched it on 2x speed and even then the lady didn't seem to be talking THAT fast. Anyway, I didn't watch the WHOLE thing because I was eager to get to the projects, which I had heard are something like a workbook; you do each and learn new stuff.
So I started with the scarf which I hate.
I didn't bother with the seaming it up or attaching tassels because I hate this look of worsted weight yarn that is knitted on size 15 needles, single-stranded. This is achieved here through dropping every other stitch. Yeah, it's neat that it works that way but... seriously. If I wanted that look I'd just handknit it on needles that were way too big. It's not pretty.
Also I evidently haven't learned not to drop stitches all over the place. Irritating! AND one of the latches is BROKEN so ... I don't know what to do about that.
In short, I haven't decided yet if I hate this totally or just haven't gotten it down yet. In the meantime, it makes me feel like a really good hand-knitter.

TRAGEDY

That was the cast-on edge. The yarn broke when I was putting on my sock.
Granted, I broke this same yarn twice while winding it and that's why the yarn left over is in several pieces but, still. I mean, I thought I must have been being uncharacteristically rough on it but as it turns out, no. This yarn is just weak! Boo!

FO--socks

They're just plain stockinette with a little bit of ribbing at the top; top-down, heel flap. Kitchener toe. My first socks ever. Done in Plymouth Sockotta (45% cotton, 40% Superwash wool, 15% nylon) on US 2 DPN, as per the label, but I think if I use this yarn again for socks I'll want a tighter guage because I can feel individual purl bumps on the soles of my feet.
I made them pretty short because I didn't know how far the skein would go, and so I'm left with enough to make something else small-ish.

just a link

This pattern: Felted Red Rose Handbag Made me laugh for about a solid minute.

Not-so-Local Yarn Stores

On Wednesday Mom and I made a trip up to the town of Boerne, just outside of San Antonio. We knew there was a yarn shop there so we set out to find it. Well, we had a hard time finding Rosewood Yarns, even though it's on Rosewood street and just off of Main. We seriously drove right by it without seeing it somehow. That turned out to have been Divine intervention because when we were lost we located another store by the name of Ewe and Eye. I don't know if she stocked every color of Tahki Cotton Classic, but she may well have. I scored a set of bamboo #0 DPNs which makes me happier than it should, and a spool of "Knitting-in elastic" in black. Yayyyyyyy for toys. Then we did eventually find Rosewood Yarn and they had banana silk yarn! I've long been intrigued by this, and since I've already gotten hemp, corn, soy, and bamboo yarns, banana was due! I could not wait to get home and play with swift, winder, and yarn and produce:
I love that the one on the right, which is called "Rangi Changi" looks like recycled sari silk, but without all the death!

YAY YAY!

YES! I finished mom's shawl and dad's hat--which they've claimed now is a Christmas present. But they've both already taken their gifts, giving me no chance to wrap them up! I haven't photographed them either but I will in the next few days. I haven't finished the present for Rachel yet but that won't take TOO long I hope. Again, pictures will come!... that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Christmas knitting... nearing the end.

I've finished knitting mom's shawl but haven't blocked it or woven in the ends yet. Likewise, Dad's hat. Basically, I've done the fun and easy parts of my Christmas gifts and need to really focus on how much I love the recipients in order to finish them... ugh. And I've been hit by S.A.D. it seems. Just the past few days. It's unpleasant. Maybe tomorrow I'll try some light therapy.

one more row... ?

I know I don't post nearly often enough and I'm going to try to fix that (easier now that October's past! Like that was ever a good enough excuse).
Anyway, when kntiting in the round, there's no end of row to stop at. So I've continued knitting long after I SHOULD have gone to bed and I just can't put it down. I think, "Oh, just a bit more." and I've thought that like ten times and you know, there's always more to knit! Urg, frustrating!

hats and cats

I'm such a terrible person for never updating this thing! Anyway, I joined the Happy Hooker Crochet-along and I've made two hats. This is the "Boy Beanie" but I made it for myself. And I haven't taken care of that last bit of yarn poking out there.
And this is the "Anarchy Irony Hat" that I'm not thrilled with but whatever.



And also I wanna post some kitties because I love them.
Here are Timothy and Banzai having some territory issues over the desk near the computers...

This is Timothy. He likes to hang off the edge, just to show how casual he is.


This is Timothy in one of my favorite poses. He looks like a frog.

finished things

Here's Rachel wearing the Anarchy Irony hat from The Happy Hooker. I finished the hat part last night, but then had issues with the anarchy sign. I ended up just freehand surface crocheting that part on. I think it's crappy but acceptable. Turns out I'm a very loose hooker. The pattern called for a size J hook, and to match gauge with my Simply Soft yarn, I had to use a size G. I found this hard to believe. I thought I must be wrong in the way I checked gauge, or something. So I read the instructions again, checked again, had to keep going down in hook size... weird. So for the first time in my life I'll have to learn to tighten up rather than hang loose. Damn you, crochet! You've flipped my world inside out!

I also finished my left armwarmer and the stripes don't match up with the right one but that's okay with me. And of course they're finished just in time for me to not need anything even remotely warm for at least half a year.

I'm updated! Oh boy!

This scarf is meant to be shaped like a fish. In retrospect, I should have continued the shaping more because right now it looks like a giant necktie. I plan to add some fins and eyes to make it look more fishy. It was just gonna be a plain old scarf, knitted garter stitch from some Yarn Bee Italia (100% nylon and 100% so soft!), but after I started the colors reminded me of koi. So it's a plain old garter stitch knitted scarf with some shaping to make it look like a tail and head. A little.

Here's my right armwarmer, which has been finished for a few days now. It's made of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Stormy (I think that's the name of the color), #6 DPNs, and the worksheet from the Snowball's chance in Hell armwarmers from the Anticraft.
Its mate is still in progress, but I'm actually working on it. Honest.






I've also been learning to crochet, and my first FO was a square for Warm Up America, which is boring so I'm not posting it and my second is also kinda boring but I consider it a HUGE success:
It was really simple to make, mostly just chaining and slip stitching. The pattern came from JPF Crochet Club, and more specifically, from http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/14misc/spidercattoy.shtml
So anyway, it was successful in that Banzai chased it down the stairs tonight, and we played with him with it in the kitchen and in the living room, and a jolly old time was had by all, then he went and took a rest by the door and Cutie, the Grumpy Old Man cat, who's 17 and a half in human years and like a million in cat years, came and played too! He batted at it and caught it in his paw and bit at it... It made my heart so happy! And for such an old cat, it was a lot of playing. Anyway, I'm happy, so happy. Gonna go now. And I really do intend to update this thing a lot more often... I'm just so bad at it.

bitter

No pictures.
Go cry about it.
I almost cried about it last night when I was happily knitting along on a sweater made of Lion Brand Homespun because darn it, I'm going to use that stuff up. I had my Denise circulars and things were just great till SNAP. Cable broke. Missed Arakawa's skating. I call this "Stitch and sonofabitch". So I had to do stuff to save the sweater and after that I felt pretty completely disheartened. And I don't even care about the olympics, I mostly do it because it's a way to hang out and socialize with mom and dad, so I'm not THAT bummed about having missed a figure skater, except she turned out to be the gold medalist. The fuels my theory that me watching is bad luck.
But that's beside the point.

I hate that yarn reviews, projects, everything everywhere is wool, wool, wool. Okay! FINE! I get that it's BETTER than the stuff I'm not deathly allergic to. I'm gonna cry about that too. Knitting world can kiss my aspartame.

So current knitting projects are:
1) get new cable for Denise Interchangeables.
2) Do that other crap I've been meaning to do.
The problem is I just don't FEEL like it anymore. Why bother? Plus I've noticed myself being too AR about my knitting. That's fine. I'm like that. But the reason I loved it when I started is because I'd make mistakes and that was OKAY. I could accept that I'm not perfect, I'm just a beginner. That's gone now and I don't know why.

It might be because of those overachieving knitters who start knitting one day and the next day they've created a custom sweater and have sold it for big bucks. I hate those people. Because YES, I'm jealous. FINE. Shut UP.

Banzai in the sink

WAAAAAY overdue (bonus: crappy layout!)

I made the "Headline News" Cabled newsboy cap from Stitch n Bitch Nation (which I got for Christmas) using some pretty and soft-feeling red yarn and lo, when I put it on it was like no time at all before my face got just ALL itchy and turned around the hairline. So I washed it and after that, the same thing happened. Clearly, wool + my face don't mix.
That hat found a home with someone at church, and I re-made it using some Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red. It's lovely and I wear it all the time. I plan to make another, probably in black.


This is a hat for Rachel made from Moda Dea Eden and using the only knitting pattern that they even HAVE for it on the website.
It isn't done yet; I still need to weave in ends and make the pompoms and the scarf to match, since I had to order more yarn of the "Apple" color for it. But Rachel wanted to wear it anyway. She's super awesome.


The Sweater. I'm determined to use this homespun! I'm doing it as a top-down raglan this time, so there are no seams, HOORAY! I still think it's pretty, if a little MUCH as far as number of colors per inch.








This is half a pair of "Warmer World Wristers" that I made both at the same time using the pattern from the Knitting Pattern-a-day calendar. I'd show both, but I needed one hand to take a picture and it's not like they don't look the same. They're made in Wool-ease. It itches a little. Maybe if I wash them that'll stop, or maybe I'm just that allergic to wool.

those damn armwarmers

i'm almost done with the "Snowball's Chance in Hell" armwarmers from theanticraft.com--all I have left to do is the ribbing at the end of the left one, and the thumb of same, and to weave in all those damn ends. Oh man. I'm dying. It's not FUN anymore. Anything that can gone wrong has, so I guess at least there are no more mistakes to make, but if I say that then I'll find some new ones. So I'll say I'm almost done and probably have only about 10 mistakes left in the damn things. Have I said damn enough today? It's how I feel. I feel damn.

Gifty!

I'm nearing completion on armwarmer #1 and have done the duplicate stitch of the first snowflake design:

That's my hand you see in the picture--all wrapped up in an elastic bandage because for reasons unknown, it started hurting a few days ago. My best guesses are that I slept on it funny or that I strained it trying to open something. Whatever happened, though, it sucks because it's been making knitting harder and slower. Mom says I should go to the doctor, but almost every time I go to the doctor, I regret that I did because they tell me something like, "Just take advil and rest it." and stuff like that, that I've already been doing. What a waste!
My aunt gave me a (belated) birthday gift a couple days ago, too: the knitter's handy book of sweater patterns and the knitter's handy book of patterns, as well as some money that will almost definitely go toward buying yarn. Yum, yum, yarn. I've already started making a drop-sleeve sweater from the book, because it's easy. And I have the homespun just sitting around after I frogged my horrendous previous attempt at a first sweater. Yes, I'm learning! I've learned that I really am just a beginner and I shouldn't push self too hard.
I'm knitting the sweater in the round instead of straight, so that I won't have to sew any seams, because seams are the devil.

Hurrah!

I've finished the sleeve for Rachel's DS! I can now say I pretty much love the Turkish cast-on. This was knit in the round on two #8 circulars. Rachel says it fits her portable game system "elegantly" and is "SO soft!"
I was thinking about waiting until Christmas to give it to her, as I'm not completely sure about these armwarmers, but she has the DS already, and needed something to keep it in.
Also, I realize that I take the worst pictures. Ever.