Finally!! FO's

I FINALLY got the baby blanket not only finished, but photographed and sent too! And the baby's only 4 weeks old. Amazing! The blanket I knit for his 4 or 5 year old sister is still folded up in my bedroom. I possibly should have sent that along, too, but I've not exactly sure how late in childhood a blanket is an appropriate gift. Anyhow, on to the good stuff.



And a really blurry shot that sucks, but at least it shows the blanket in its entirety.



Frankly I'm too lazy to type out all the yarn information, and actually I don't even know the colors offhand. The ball bands are long gone. If you're really curious you can check it out on my Ravelry project page. Here are just the basics-

Yarn: Dark Horse Fantasy in various shades of blue with a bit of black and tan
Needles: Size 7 circ's
Pattern: baby size Modern Log Cabin Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Mods: Instead of using the 4 colors the pattern called for, I used something like 8 and just put them in where I saw fit.

I can't tell you how thankful I am to finally have that monkey off my back! It shipped out today and should arrive on Friday morning.

Next order of business: Zombie Socks!



It was really hard to even *try* to get the pattern details or an accurate color, but here's my attempt.



Pattern: Zombie Socks by Emm1e on Ravelry
Yarn: BMFA STR lightweight in Rook-y from the Raven series
Needles: Size 2 circ, worked Magic Loop
Mods: I did 5 pattern repeats on the leg instead of 3 and had to add a few repeats onto the heel.

These socks are also my first pair for the 52 Pair Plunge....which I joined with some crack-pipe aspirations in my head. I am SO far behind, but I'm not too pressed about it. I'd rather enjoy what I'm knitting than feel like I'm knitting with a gun pressed to my temple. Tonight I plan on finishing the first of my second pair, the Spring Forward socks from the summer Knitty. Pictures of that to follow.

In non-knitting news, guess what I'm doing right now?!?! Oh yeah....I'm just sitting here watching DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER!!!!!!! Evidently A&E has decided that while Dog may be a bit of a "character" he may not be so much of a racist and have put his show back on the air. You know what this means!! My obsession can continue! I knew the new season was starting in July, but you can imagine my surprise when I heard that familiar riff and the voice of Ozzy as the show came on tonight. I totally spazzed out. Big time.

Alright, off to work on my sock!

Je pense que je suis "jinxed"

Last week at Stitch n' Bitch I was asked if my Log Cabin baby blanket wasn't terribly boring to work on considering that it's all garter stitch. I said no, and at the time that was the truth. Since that night, however, progress seems to have come to a screeching halt. Up to that point I had been completing about a section a night. Currently I'm about half a section away from where I was a week ago. This is not 100% due to it being a boring project. I really don't even find it boring at all since I usually work on it while I'm catching up on my days DVR recordings. Something happened though......that's for sure. Here's where I'm at now.

You may notice that there's VERY little difference between this picture and those of my previous entry. Really though, it'll be done after not too long. After this top section that I'm working on now there are only 2 more to go. They involve a little intarsia action so the monotony of working on the really big sections will be broken up. I'm thinking it's not going to be quite as big as I had thought.

And here's one of those random FO's I promised.

Pattern: Noro Hat by Saartji de Bruijn

Yarn: Noro Kureyon No. 185

Needles: US 8 circ's

I don't think I modified this hat in any way. I started and finished it back in January so my memory on it's production is a bit questionable though. I do recall that I thought it was coming out HUGE but in the end it all worked out. Oh, and something is fishy with my camera so please excuse the amount of fierce blur in some of these pictures.

In non-knitting news, I signed up for an Italian class through the Italian Cultural Society of Washington. The Monday night class I wanted to be in got cancelled because of lack of space so I had to take Wednesday nights. That means no more Stitch n' Bitch for me for the next 10 weeks. My class started tonight, but after driving around for 2 HOURS I still couldn't find the building so I ended up coming home and missing it. WTF???

Oh! I also went to see the Yarn Harlot on Monday night. Typically, I left my camera at home. It was much fun, though. I started a new project while I was waiting there.....because we all know that's exactly what I need to be doing. I'll have more info on that later on.

I'm Baaaack

Yes, yes. I know it's been forever and a day since I last posted. Sorry. All I can say is that I'm one of those people for whom the more time there is to do stuff, the less stuff gets done. Conversely, if I'm super crazy busy, I go into frantic mode and manage to get absolutely everything I need done and then some. I'm still adjusting to not having such huge deadlines always looming over me and when given the spare time, I just kind of flit around trying to decide what it is that I'm really supposed to be doing. Anyhow, that kind of explains it.

Sooooooo.....I have lots and lots to share. My game plan to get myself back into the swing of blog maintenance is to post a little spread over a few days. Seeing as how I'm so all over the place, some of the stuff may be (severely) out of chronological order, but oh well. To start, I'll begin with the present.

Most of my sock club subscriptions have expired, which is a little sad. I had some massive issues with Paypal that kept me from being able to renew anything. Maybe that's for the best seeing as how my sock yarn stash has grown to legendary proportions. I think we all know where my heart really lies, and *that* sock club is still in full swing. Yes, I am referring to the 2008 Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock club. I don't really remember if I ever even posted my first shipment....I'll have to investigate that....but here's the second.

and a semi fugly close up of the yarn

The colors really don't show well at ALL in these pictures. My house s so dark and with the schedule I was keeping, sunlight and I were distant strangers. I really like the color, and am liking the pattern too. I wasn't sure about it when I first looked at it, but once I really saw the details of it I'm digging it a lot more. I'd really like to say that these socks were completed, but a little touch of masochism got in the way. It looks a little like this.....

It's a Modern Log Cabin Blanket! Excitement.

I recalled that my impregnator nephew and his fiancees baby is due quite soon. So, in my brilliance, I decided to make a large, multi-colored, smaller gauged blanket for them. Smart! It's actually coming along quite nicely......attractive, more complex looking than it really is, and yet still on the easy knit/semi-speedy side. The only issue I'm really having with it is that some of the joints are a little......icky.

I'm hoping that when I wash it and all that good finishing stuff, I can kind of conceal some of the messiness. If not, eh, it's really not all that noticeable unless you're really looking at it.

Well, that's about it for now. I have my camera charged and ready to go so hopefully I'll be spitting out some FO shots soon. Not that I'll actually be spitting out FO's. That's one of the joys of not blogging for a long time. I have a lot done already:)

My very first charity project

IMG_1474
Originally uploaded by knitglit

I decided semi last minute that I'd like to knit some stuff up to donate at the Columbia Annul Knit-a-Thon tomorrow. Taking into account the "AHHhhh!! i have no time!" factor, I opted to make some preemie caps. They're small, supposedly quick to make, and are all around a good cause. The thing is this. I know little to nothing about babies, little to nothing about making things for babies, and little to nothing about charities. I will admit, I knit about half of one cap and before thoughts of grand suckiness started running through my head. To spice things up a little bit I raided my stash and pulled out a bunch of stuff I wanted to be rid of. Lion Brand "Cashmere" (all of 5%), Patons Melody in a God awful color that hate to admit was actually purchased a few years go to make something for myself (gag), and some assorted acrylic blends that I have for whatever reason. My goal was to knit through all of this yarn. Needless to say, I failed miserably. It didn't help that the Rainbow Socks from Magknits happened to be published in the midst of my mania. I finally broke down and even crocheted a few in the hopes of eating up extraordinary amounts of yarn in a quick fashion. This did not work as I don't really crochet. Still, I managed to whip out about 4 or 5 of them. Altogether I ended up making about 15, though I swear I made at least one more red one that's somehow vanished. I also had 5 or 6 kindly donated to me to add to my collection by shop-frequenter and crochet instructor Eudora. So that's that. I now have it for a charity.....not counting the few times I've knit for someone I deem to be a charity-case. Perhaps I'll even do it again next year. I bet I can work through all the extra yarn by then.

Redemption

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been loving my DVR and was very excited by my new found ability to watch Knitty Gritty. That post received a comment that basically said that Knitty Gritty didn't have too much to offer as far as new stuff for the more advanced knitter. Unfortunately, I've found this to be very, very true. I think I've watched all the episodes I've recorded, but really saw nothing thrilling and, truth be old, I usually haven't even really been "watching" as mush as having it on as background noise while I knit something completely unrelated. This week things seemed to take a turn for the better though! There was one episode with Lily Chin that covered a lot of different techniques like bobbles and something else that I can't recall, although it interested me at the time. Then came today's show. Today's show actually made me pause my TV and come downstairs to order yarn. I wasn't able to get a good picture of these so you can just follow the links. This has to be one of the cutest baby things I've ever seen in my life. This hat and these booties. I love, love, love them. I immediately ordered some Berroco Suede and Plush from Yarnmarket. I'm changing up the color scheme a little since they're for a little girl, so I'm doing the main color in Annie Oakley and using a darker rose for the soles of the feet. Then I'm using the cream colored Plush for the fleece part. I'm totally in love with these and am so happy that my nephew knocked up his girlfriend, thereby providing me with the opportunity to knit such things. Thankfully, they live many hours away so I can knit the cute things, mail them, and not have to risk touching a baby. I can't wait until the yarn comes in.

Close call

I just got back from Chicago last night and had to be at a birthday party for my mom and one of my nephews at 7:30. This party was also to be my unveiling/presentation of my Lil' Devil Pants. This would have been all fine and well except for the fact that, well, I didn't have them done. By the time we got to the hotel on our first night of driving, I just didn't feel like knitting and instead entertained myself by marvelling at how strange Criss Angel is. He's one weird dude. That's about all I can say about that. Then, when I finally got settled at our hotel in Chicago I came to the awful realization that I had much more to do on the pants than I had thought. I did end up getting it all knit, but then I didn't have the tools for finishing. This was remedied by my trip The Fold (drool), but that's a tale for another day. Let me just say that I spent far, far less than I thought I would. Shocking, I know. So now, with tools in hand, I had to sew the damn thing up. I found this so confounding that I decided to put it off until I got home, thinking that I'd have plenty of time to make a few little stitches before party time. Oh how stupid I can be sometimes. I got home absolutely exhausted, still had to go gift shopping for my nephew, and still didn't know how to sew for crap. After much bitching and whining, I prevailed.

My favorite detail.

I had to use my imagination to get the drawstring through, but it came out pretty well. Also,I amazed myself with the evenness of my seaming.

My mom suggested to me that I not seam the leg cuffs. I don't particularly care for it undone, but I was already like an hour late for the party so I said f-it.

Perhaps the untrained eye won't even notice that this obviously was supposed to be sewn up.

So, onto the specs.

Pattern: Lil' Devil Pants from Stitch n'Bitch Nation

Yarn: Patons Grace in Cherry Red, 4 skeins

Needles: Size 2 Circulars and size 3 DPN's

Started: late July '07

Finished: August 4 '07

I predominantly followed the pattern exactly. I think I must have an early and error ridden edition of the book because I had to leave a row off of the buttonhole shaping. Also, as stated, I didn't sew the leg cuffs. Everyone seemed to love them, so mission accomplished. Hooray for FO's an meeting deadlines!

Gift Knitting

****WARNING: IF YOU ARE PART OF MY FAMILY IN OHIO, GO LOOK AT SOMETHING ELSE ON THE INTERNET NOW, AND DON'T COME BACK HERE UNTIL AFTER YOUR VISIT HERE!!!!********

Sorry about that. I'm not clever enough to manipulate those little pop up links to help conceal photos of gift items. So I'm gift knitting. I don't exactly know what possessed me to do such a thing, but I started it and now I have to finish. Blah.

I guess it could be worse......a lot worse, if any of you remember the fiasco with that piece of crap blanket my niece was having me make for her. No offense, Nikki, if you should happen to read this. On the bright side, I came up with a fabulous plan to rework the blanket and make it wonderful. I hope. Anyhow, on to the project at hand. I decided to make the Lil' Devil Pants from Stitch n' Bitch Nation to gift to my nephew's daughter Grace. Nothing says loving like dressing an infant like Satan! I think the pattern is really cute, but I want to hunt down whoever decided to write a baby pattern for such small, small needles and teeny tiny yarn. I wouldn't mind so much except that it goes against my notion of baby knits being extraordinarily quick and I'm on a deadline. There were other factors involved, too, which somewhat hindered my knitting.

When this photo was taken, I don't know that I realized yet that the width of the leg was going to keep getting wider and wider, as opposed to thinning out as I had planned. That wasn't a fun moment of clarity, let me tell you. Harry Potter got finished, and soon enough I was able to devote a little more time to the pants of evil. Here's where I'm at now.

One leg down and the bitchy, lengthy, time consuming part to go on the other. I'm having to divey up my time a little now, because I've become completely enamoured with another project. I'm going to hold off on mentioning it for the moment because I'm not 100% certain that I can actually pull it off. Some of you may already know what it is. If I can do it, it will be a truly spectacular feat, at least for me. I'm also waiting on my Knitpicks order to come in with the fixings for my ginormous spider wen shawl. Someone needs to shoot me.

Okay, I'm off to plot and plan.

Grace Elizabeth

My nephews girlfriend had her baby on.....some night this week. I'll say Wednesday. That sounds accurate enough. Luckily, I had finished the baby blanket. I didn't exactly wash it or do any pf the nice wrapping bits that I had thought I might do, but hey, the thing gor finished. For me that's pretty good. I still was able to box it up in tissue paper with a book and letter congratulating the girlfriend on surviving such a horrifying event. As I was leaving for the post office, three things occured to me.

1) My box wasn't securely closed.
2) I had forgotten to photograph the blanket.
3) I did not have their address.

Oops.

After some time of making calls, finding and looking through books, unpacking and repacking,an impromptu photo session and a short trip to my grandpa's house the box was ready to go.
Here it is, in fairly bad positioning on my grandpa's office chair.

Here is my crappy attempt to show the colors. It's not too bad of a representation, but it could be better.

In the letter I descibed it as an "all purpose blanket that can be stretched out to fit over big things or balled up to throw into something small, like a car seat." That's a loose cover up of my previous thoughts of " Ooops! This blanket has some super funky measurements now that I have it off the needles! What do I do??"

Anyhow, it's done and shipped. Yay for baby Grace being born safe and healthy. In a related story, I was emailed pictues of the baby yesterday. I literally recoiled when I saw them and it took me a moment to realize,"Oh. It's just a human baby." God bless all those who can look at babies all crusty faced and peely skinned and be proud. I think I'd have to give it a week or two before touching.