Oops, more yarn

Did I mention that along with the Green Line DK that I ordered for my sweater, a couple balls of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock fell into my cart too?

http://www.JimmyBeansWool.com/knitting/yarn/LornasLaces/ShepherdSock.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=22531

In colors Funky Stripe that will hopefully look good with this pattern:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/not-a-drop

Sweater saga: Begin!

So I've been wanting to make a knitted sweater for... Well, a long time. And mostly I'm lazy and know that it will take me forever but I'm also partly scared of the difficulty level and the cost of the yarn. I don't really think the knitting will be hard, I pretty much have the hang of most knitting techniques except for colorwork, but I do know the construction will be difficult. I'm not a sewer, so the seaming and general putting together directions will be challenging for me. I find picking up stitches to be hard, trying to figure out how many stitches will cover without puckering, but also make them neat and even. But no excuses. I just have to try because I'll never get good at it if I only listen to podcasters talk about their sweater making but never so it myself.

So what got me going finally was a sale! The www.jimmybeanswool.com email showed that the Lorna's Laces Green Line DK http://www.JimmyBeansWool.com/knitting/yarn/LornasLaces/GreenLineDK.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=23576 was on sale for $7.50 and though there aren't many colors left, there were plenty in a great smokey violet color, Blackberry. I have a jacket in a similar color that I am wearing out. So that would make a sweaters worth around $83 and that sounded affordable. I know I could get Cascade 220 for less but I don't love the feel of 220 and reviews of Green Line said it was soft and nice to work with. They also said it bleeds badly so I may wash it before winding it, we'll see.

So knowing what yarn I was going to get I searched Ravelry for DK sweaters, I wanted something fairly popular so there were notes and reviews and people I could tap if I had trouble with mine and the one I liked the most was the Kingscot cardigan http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/index.php/component/content/article/60-winter-2008-patterns/135-kingscot-by-norah-gaughan- by Nora Gaughan on Twist Collective. It's worked in pieces and seamed, which will be good experience for me. I do want to do a top down raglan with minimal seaming but maybe for the next sweater I do. After picking out Kingscot, I realized the Green Line worsted was also on sale and would actually be a but cheaper but I couldn't find a worsted sweater pattern that I really loved. The Kingscot will be perfect because there is some cabling and patterning on the back for interest so it's not just miles of stockinette that might be a bit boring.

So the yarn is ordered and is on it's way, I'm crossing my fingers that the bleeding isn't too bad though some said it was literally rubbing off on their fingers while they worked with it.

Maybe I should finish my two shawls I'm working on before starting this sweater.

Yarrrrrrrrr!! N!!!!!

So I made a recent trip to the Cleve to visit my good friend and guess what I found! Yep! Yar!N!

We stumbled across a street festival in an area of town called Tremont and while there, and while eating ice cream, we found yarn graffiti! How exciting! My first encounter!

Sock yarnage.

So the socks I made for Elle turned out pretty cute, as evidenced by these very good shots that Steve got with his much better than mine camera, but I didn't finish them fast enough. I mailed them to my sister and she informed me that she loved them... but they were already too small for Elle!  Boo.

So I started something else for Elle - some little leg warmers. I know she won't need them till the winter, hopefully they will still fit her once cold weather comes around. They are turning out cute. Great mindless knit, mostly just knit knit knit in the round. Using some more Premier sock yarn in Paprika and this baby leggings pattern. I will get on another pair of socks after I finish these leg warmers.

Tiny toes

These tiny socks are so fast to make! I would be almost done with them except I wanted to be sure they wouldn't be way too big (or small) for Elle so I asked my sister to measure her foot and am waiting on her to email me back with measurements. I had some trouble at first with the increases and keeping the sides seams tight and had large holes at the side joins so I frogged after about 20 rounds and started over.

Perfectionism is painful.

Uh oh. More yarn. More projects.

So after I bought all that great sock yarn at Stitches South and told my sister how I was so excited about making socks, she requested that I make some socks for my niece, Elle. I like to be able to make things people actually ask for, though I don't always come through, as evidence by my half done hat that Suzy asked me to make since Sydney had outgrown her other gay baby devil hat.

So anyhow, I didn't want to use my super expensive super awesome new sock yarn for baby sock since, well, it's for meeeeeeee! Well also it's just not economical, they will take so little yarn and then the rest of the ball will be useless for other projects! So obviously, I need more yarn. To Hobby Lobby I went! Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight. Superwash merino, bamboo and nylon. Feels pretty nice and decent colorways. Totally don't need another project started but have cast on Preemie Socks.

Also bought a bunch of scrapbooking stuff to make a book for my mom for mother's day. As if I need another hobby/project.

Yay Stitches South!

See the awesomely beautiful yarn I got at Stitches?? I was so excited to learn about Stitches South in Atlanta, since my recent knitting podcast obsession had made me super jealous of people going to festivals full of fiber such as Stitches West, Oregon Flock and Fiber, etc. When I discovered one in the south and not too far from me, super pumped!

And I was able to combine the trip with a visit and shopping since it was in Atlanta and my niece (oh and my sister too I guess) lives there and ATL has my fav store, H&M. I didn't take any classes since they are a bit pricey and I was unable to convince my only crafty friend to go with me but really the thing I was most excited about anyway was the yarn market because I never have a chance to look at and fondle real awesome yarns such as my fav podcasters talk about constantly. I work therefore never manage to get to the couple of small LYSs that are in my area. I don't want to order things from the Internet that I have never felt or seen so I was really hoping to see some of the fab yarn I hear others use, such as Malabrigo Sock, Cascade 220, Socks That Rock, and Dream In Color Smooshy - as well as seeing other cool random yarns from small independent companies. I really didn't see as much familiar stuff as I had hoped but the independent stuff did not disappoint!

I ended up with a lot of Malabrigo Sock, well with a lot of sock, period. In fact I only got one laceweight skein and the rest was sock yarn. You see where my focus is. I fell in love with the Malabrigo sock, as expected - I already love the worsted. And the colorway are just to dye for! I really wanted so much more... I got natural, Rayon Vert and Archangel. So yummy.

Also got some Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock Stripe in Flamingo Stripe

and Socks That Rock medium in Deck the Halls, all from the Webs booth.

With those all in my arms, a lady commented it was obvious what colors I liked, and that my choices even matched my clothes!

I proceeded to not break the color palatte and bought some Ivy Brambles Romantica Merino Lace in Petunias, 1000 yards, so gorgeous!

And then found the Sanguine Gryphon booth with the medeival dressed staff and delicious colorways. I got Bugga! in Nightcrawler

and Little Traveller in Costa Rica.

I wanted so much more and everyone took credit cards so even though that was the end of my cash.... I totally would have carried on digging a huge yarny hole for myself except it was 12 o'clock, time for me to leave because I was going to babysit my niece while my sister got her hair cut. Oh well. It's for the best.

Now up, time to knit socks and shawls!!

Cool join technique

I heard about this joining technique on a podcast, I think it was DoubleKnit and think it's very cool but I'm not sure how functional it will be for some patterns. It's a technique to stop the uneven stripe problem when you are working in the round. The way it turns out, you have to move the join one stitch to the left every time you go around and so it will affect the spots where you would otherwise be decreasing or other things. I wanted to use it for a little knit baby jumper but don't think I'll be able to. Maybe for something else.
 
It's called Meg Swansen's jogless join or jogless jog.
http://jlyarnworks.blogspot.com/2009/02/tutorial-jogless-join_22.html

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The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with Hotmail. Get busy.

Awesome elastic cast on

I wanted to save this link somewhere I can find it - it claims that it is a really sturdy elastic cast on, which I am going to be needing soon as I begin the next phase of knitting - socks! I bought a kit from Knit Picks that has 7 balls of yarn and 7 patterns for anklet socks. I'm excited.

Old Norwegian cast on

May through July projects

Or, I should say, some of them. I'm only picking the pictures that I can find in the little tiny icons that are in the download window. If I miss a project, oh well. I've done so many this year, I can't imagine anyone really wants to see all of them. Especially since I'm not a great photographer and the pics are less than stellar usually. I need to take some photographing tips from my new favorite podcaster, Nevernotknitting.

A bib. Supposed to look like a vampire, it really looks like random hearts and dots. Oh well. Then I gave it to my sister and I forgot to put anything on it to fasten it, like a button or snaps or velcro... so it's really not anything but a pile of cotton now.

My favorite blanket pattern. I made this blankie for a friend of Claire's who was having a baby shower. Baby was a boy, if you couldn't tell by the color.

A blanket that I made for Agnes, who I used to work with in Bessemer. She called and said she wanted a baby blanket for someone... I can't remember who. I stopped the blanket a few rounds short because I ran out of the yarn -- I got some more but it was a fairly different color, darker, so I just did one round after the last bobbles and it's not really that noticeable. Unless I tell you and then you can notice. And it's been done for months and I haven't called to get together with her and give her the blanket. I'm a bad person.

I made this cute little dress for my older sister who is having a baby. I hadn't made her much of anything because I was waiting to find out what the baby was. When I saw these Belle dress patterns from Crochet Garden, I knew these were for Amy, if she was going to have a girl. So I made one in pink and a brown cabled vest for a boy and brought them both to Atlanta the day she had the ultrasound to sex the baby. I had them both ready and was fully prepared to give her the vest, we were all convinced it would be a boy since my other sister had had a girl. But it was a girl! So I happily gave her the cute girly dress. She was ecstatic about it being a girl, but her husband was sad. He asked me if they could have the vest too just in case it did turn out to be a boy or he could at least put the vest on his little girl and mourn the fact that his firstborn wasn't a boy.

This is a photo of me wearing a shrug that is not mine but looks a lot like mine. I mean, I have one that looks nearly like that but then I made two more for my boss' two girls. I like the pattern but I wish I had made mine like theirs. I widened the rib edge for theirs which made it fold over at the collar better. And I tacked down the collar so it was obvious which way was up. I finished her two shrugs in a couple weeks. The one I made for myself took more than a year. And is only the second thing I have ever made for myself. But I actually wear this shrug, the sweater I made for myself doesn't really fit so is never worn.

I wanted to make something homey for my fellow SLP coworker who had just gotten married but would work up quickly 'cause I was trying to make it while she was on her honeymoon. So I purchased this casserole cozy pattern and churned the thing out in a weekend. I had to change it up since my pot was obviously bigger or I crochet tighter. The flower is supposed to be attached to the pot and open in the middle but it wasn't going to connect up and I liked it better as a top that would come all the way off.

This is the Pembroke vest that I made when I thought that my sister was going to have a boy. I never got a good picture of it after finishing it and my sister hasn't sent me one yet. She has other things on her mind, like growing baby toes and lungs. This is my coworker modeling the thing, obviously not the right way. The pattern was just one that I found online and liked but recently my podcast listening connected me to it. Nevernotknitting has contributed patterns to the Petite Purls online mag and was talking about the Pembroke vest pattern on there. Funny connection.

A couple of blankets I've edged. I have probably done about a dozen of these in the past year. The blue blanket was for Jennifer who does PRN for me and had a boy back in January. The pink I ended up giving my sister Amy at her shower but I made it initially for a former coworker who had a girl. I created the edging for the pink so that it looked like little hearts.

I love these darn blankets. I get them from Hemstitcher and love their selection but hate their webmaster who has the website all jacked up most of the time. I fell in love with some patterns and when I tried to order them, they weren't there. Come to find out several days later of trying to get in contact with someone that they were patterns of cotton on their new cotton website. But the webmaster still hasn't taken them off the flannel site, even after I alerted them that they were falsely on the flannel site. Oh well. I used to love this company because they have a great product for a great price and they were fast fast and great with repsonses. The first two are still true but now when I order, it takes as much as a week or more before they even ship and then the shipping takes another week and is darn expensive for how light the boxes are. They used to cut and ship the next day and it would arrive in 2-3 days. Also now they never respond to emails I send. I can leave up to 3 messages on their phone before they bother to call me back and often I have to get sort of nasty before they will call me. Problem is that they still have the best selection and the best price of any site, and I've looked at a lot of others. I also love how they can make the blankets be only one layer, instead of two, which no one else does. In the south, one layer is more than enough.

Oops, forgot these.

Here's some pictures of babies actually wearing dresses I made for them. The dresses are in the last post but didn't get the pic of the babies in them. So now here they are. It's too much trouble trying to get the photos into the middle of an already started post.

The Morning Glory dress I made for my niece for Easter. I don't know if she actually wore it on easter though.

This is the Gabi dress that I made for Courtney's baby, Maddie. She texted me this picture when she was wearing the dress to church.

Continuation of a years worth of non blogging...

It gets cumbersome to post so much in one thing, so I thought it would help to break it up...

This was a FAILed attempt to make a cute Lazy Daisy cardigan from my favorite book, Beautiful Baby Boutique, but I was making it in yarn instead of thread so it would fit a toddler and it was just looking horrible. So I instead finished the bottom with the pattern from Bubble Berry and the sleeves from Springtime. My friend's daughter, Edenanne loved it though.

Another Boutique dress, this one I made a bit bigger for my niece to wear for easter.

A cute dress I made for a former co-worker who's baby was born in February? I think? Like I said before, too many babies at once! I have a pic of her wearing the dress later, but I'm too lazy to go find it. The Gabi Dress pattern was pretty easy to make but took a long time because the skirt is worked long ways. I think I had to decrease a bit more too, to get it to really cinch up at the waist.

I made a trip to Cleveland to visit my friend Sam and her new baby, Autumn and got the chance to photograph her in some things I made her, the nightmare blanket and the hat that I made up the pattern to.

Also, here is Autumn in the bamboo jacket I love so much! The pattern works up so fast!

Here is the tea cozy that I made for Sam and then forgot to photograph. Great pattern, a little hard to follow the instructions. Would have liked to use more colors, but Sam wasn't into pink.

Another of my favorite patterns, here is version 1, 2, and 3 of this little kimono cardigan. I recently finished number 4 which I'll post later, when I get to recent stuff. These were all done early this year.

Former co-worker's baby Madeline wearing the fuzzy hat I made her. Didn't like the way the pattern turned out that much, but gave it to her anyway and it looked adorable on her!

And a shot of the gay baby devil hat. It was a supposedly Peruvian pattern which had cute little ears but when I made it, the hat looked more like it had horns and my rainbow yarn made it just look like it was an advertisement for the gay coalition. It looked freakin' adorable on my niece though.

So I'm a slacker.

A major slacker. It's been a year and two days since I posted last. Geez. So what have I been working on since last year? ....

This little dress I made for a co-worker who had just had a baby girl, Madeline. I curse her for using the baby name that I liked, cause now I can't use it. The pattern came from an Annie's Attic booklet Beautiful Baby Boutique. I've made every dress in the book and mangled two of the cardigans.

These were some decorative yarn scarves that I made for a co-worker who wanted some scarves to give to her family and friends for Xmas. I just found some yarns that went together in color and made some dc skinny scarves with chunks of the different yarns. Fun and fast and profitable!

This was a scarf set that I just fell in love with (pattern here)- it was knit and used Red Heart Zoomy but I couldn't find any Zoomy locally. I used Caron Quick, which seemed to be about as thick and it turned out ok. I gave it to a girl at work for her little girl. Just randomly.

This cardigan (pattern here) I made for my friend Sam who had a baby girl in November and I wanted to make her something that wasn't pink, since I had given her several pink things already. It looks cuter than the picture.

Another of the dresses from Beautiful Baby Boutique. This one for my friends Matt and Mary who had a baby girl in January. Yes, I knew way too many people having babies all at once.

This little number turned out super cute, also for Matt and Mary's baby Harper Elizabeth. I used a Baby Bee camo and thought it turned out super chic. I hated seaming it though. The pattern came from a booklet called Sunny Day Dresses for Babies & Toddlers. I haven't made any of the other patterns yet.

Yet another bamboo jacket. I think this was the fourth or fifth one I've made? I can't even remember who it was for. Matt and Mary I think. I just love the pattern and love the Bernat Bamboo yarn even more.

My second attempt at this pattern from Candi Jensen's Candy Blankies book ended up as a gift for my uncle for Xmas. The first one was a pink nightmare that I had to knit because the yarn was way too darn fuzzy. This worked much better crocheted but still difficult to put together. He liked it though.

I made another afghan at Xmas time, this one for Steve's mom who had asked for one this year. It turned out nice and she loves it. It was from a book called Warm and Fuzzy Crochet which was full of crap. There were only a couple of patterns in it that didn't look like a muppet threw up on it. Sorry to the publisher, but seriously. Fun fur yarn wasn't meant for anything but the occasional scarf embellishment.