socks and pets

Here is the beginning of my first sock!! Yay! I love knitting things on DPNs. The little beginning tube is so cute. I'm knitting Thuja from the Winter 05 knitty. I like that they are on size 6 needles... I don't know if I'm ready for size 2s! Since they are rugged man socks, I think I will give them to my sweetie.

Oh and out of the 6 days that the hoodie has been finished, I have worn it 4 days. I heart it!
I also forgot to mention my pets... so here is a picture of my dog and company.
This is Bonny. She is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi/Jack Russell Terrier cross and I have had her since she was about 6 weeks old (her mom's milk dried up). She will be 15 in June! Her hobbies include: eating, sleeping, snoodling around on the carpet, watching the world go by and eating.


This is Jonis. He is about 6 years old, though he doesn't look it, and has a little nubby tail. He was born to a feral cat colony in some blackberry bushes. His hobbies include: hiding from people he knows (but rarely me), hanging with his favorite pal Bonny, playing with my roommates dog, hogging the food dishes, posturing around outside, playing in the toilet and sleeping.


This is Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a shelter cat, is about 7 and thinks that I am a goddess. I am allergic to his saliva. His hobbies include: sleeping, trying to sneak outside, trying to get my attention by maowing and pawing at me, wiping his drool on my face, ignoring the dogs and harassing people (esp. my roommate) into feeding him.


This is Schwinn. He belongs to my roommate and is a labra-doodle. His hobbies include: chewing no-no things in an attempt to channel puppyish energy, running around like a maniac when he gets to go to the dog park, barking at the mail man, smashing himself into small spaces and showering the world with love.

sock progress

1) cast on, knit two rows. cast on looks funny... rip out...
2) cast on, knit a row... cast on still looks funny... imagine living with it... rip out...
3) cast on with a different method... looks amazing... knit two rows... realize that there are only 43 stitches instead of 44... rip out...
4) cast on 44 again with preferred cast on... get bored... blog.

sigh... it's goint to be a long night at work2

Finished object!!! Hoodie love!!

This is how it looked in the beginning... Like a placenta that would burst out of my bag occasionally to mock me. After it was seamed and I was knitting the hood it looked even more like a placenta. Then when I was finishing the ribbing it looked like a really ugly lumpy bag.


But now the placenta has blossomed into a beautiful hoodie!! hurrah!!



I love the length of the back.


And with a stylish pin option for those days when the girls need a little extra love!



I tried the kitchener stitch on the hood. I really liked it. I ran into a couple problems so it isn't perfect, but from a reasonable distance it looks fabulous.

blogging is hard

I don't know how people blog about knitting more than once or twice a week. The hoodie is progressing. I ran out of yarn about 2.5 inches into the hood. I managed to find the last skein of that dye lot at the LYS. I think it would have been okay though, the colors don't show that much difference. Hopefully I'll be done soon.

I'm teaching a student to knit right now. It's funny to see a guy wearing a Slayer shirt get so excited about learning to knit. I hate sticky acrylic yarn. I don't know how anyone learns on it.

Bleh.

Finished objects image heavy

Besides my obligatory garter stitch scarf (of my own design of course heh) this was my first finished object. I didn't block it properly because I was so excited and I didn't know the mattress stitch so it came out kind of wonky. But I slapped the grateful dead bear on it and a friend was more than happy to take it off my hands. It's supposed to be an ipod cozy from The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting an impulse buy that wasn't a very good learning book, but got the ball rolling. Mmmm acrylic self striping sock yarn sock yarn...


I got this free pattern from Ben Franklin's. This charming armwarmer is made of a wool/acrylic blend (Lion Brand something or other, I have the label somewhere). I also made a pair of these in black Bernat's satin. An easy (knitted flat) yet fulfilling second project.

ABC: Alison's beginners cap. This was an easy first in the round project. It was knitted of blue Bernat's satin.

The Umbilical Hat from Stitch and Bitch. Also in Bernat satin. At the time I was very broke and Bernat's was a) cheap b) pretty c) easy to work with d) super soft and e) has great stitch definition.


A garter stitch scarf (original design again heh) I made for my friend Kim on the train down to San Francisco. It was made out of... any guesses?? That's right!!! Black Bernat's satin and some delicious fluffy yarn I found on sale. She loved it. Or at least pretended to and I know she has worn it at least once since then.



This is a purse from the Cool Girl's book. The knitting pattern was okay, but the finishing up instructions (lining etc) were pretty bad. It's really hard to sew through two layers of knit fabric and two layers of lining on a sewing machine. Really really hard. But this was for my oldest bestest friend in the world and she loved it. How can you not love something with buttons? It is made out of Encore DK doubled up throughout. The picture doesn't show it, but with the doubled variegation it looks almost 3D.

Uni the Pocket Creature from Knitty. Knit in left over bits.



Fetching from Knitty. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. I didn't like the picot edging so I skipped it I also skipped blocking so the bottom edge curls, but they keep my hands super warm! I had been knitting for 7 months (finished in Feb 07) and these are the first things I made for myself and I love them. Wearing something you knit yourself is awesome. I *heart* knitting!!


This isn't everything I've done... I've meant to take pictures of everything, but sometimes people wore them or I gave them away too fast. I've also done Knucks and Calorimetry from Knitty. Knitty has saved me because I don't have a lot of knitting books and spend too much time surfing the web at work2. I did a lace beanie from Rowan that was horrible and I gave it to someone with big hair. I also started the Irish Hiking Scarf from ???, but haven't finished it. I have another ABC cap on the needles somewhere, an unfinished punked out Uni and need to put ears on a finished SnB's "Hot Head" hat for a friend. Knitting hats flat is wierd.

A Big Day!!

1) I got my first comment today!!! Yay! Thanks Holly (should you ever decide to visit my poor upstart blog again)!
2) I have lost my mind. I signed up for the sockapalooza today. I've never knit a sock in my life... but I have faith in myself. This is in addition to the charity blanket swap... I can do it! I can do it!!
3) I learned how to put buttons in my sidebar.
4) I want to post pictures of all my FO from before I started the blog. I may try to do it after flute chior tonight.
5) Whew!

seaming is horrible

So did I mention that the hoodie is my first seamed project? Yeah. So I didn't do it quite right and now it is really hard to get the arms on... I guess it looks okay though. I had to seam the one arm though to make sure it fit, so it seemed (heh) logical to just attach it in it's seamed state.
It looks okay. The teacher from the fiber arts class says that the seams look "great". The only picture I have so far is the whole mess lying on the floor in a pile after I threw it away in disgust. But I have hope.

I'm also working on the Dream Swatch from knit and tonic using some hand dyed, hand spun that the fiber arts teacher gave me. It has lots of texture so it doesn't look like the picture, but still quite lovely.
I need to start a pair of fetching mitts from knitty, but my roommates dog the entire set (hers) of Clover size 6 double points. And I haven't had the $$ to buy another set. :-P I need to get started on them though so I'll either cave and buy a set or go around to thrift shops this weekend.

yay

Sleeve the second is completed!! I will seam everything this evening and hopefully everything will progress perfectly. This is my first truly seamed piece so I'm nervous about the sleeves getting set in properly.
Will post pictures when I can wear it's hoodless trimless self.

OSW

This is what the OSW looks like on a charming model. A co-worker was nice enough to model for some pictures. I still love the color. I'm going to make this co-worker one despite her protests, probably in the same color. I need to pick a color for myself.


Work continues on never-ending sleeve the second. I have about 2 inches to go until I can begin the decreases. I feel like I'm racing the weather now. I want be able to wear it when I'm done.

And some pictures of the dogwood. I've been remiss in my goal of posting interesting pictures of Eugene, but it is pretty so I feel like posting spring wonderfulness. I love that dogwoods blossom before putting out any leaves.

And now for something completely different!! (image heavy)

The story of a man and a stick... a really big stick.














The End!!!

And here's an inch worm that we found.

finished OSW!

Hoorah! The One Skein Wonder that actually took about a skein and a half is done! Ready to be shipped off to parts unknown. I wanted to keep it for myself but it doesn't fit. I really like the colors, and it is super stretchy because of the elastic, it was really fun to knit. I realized about 2/3's of the way through the body that I was supposed to be knitting it on a circular rather than straight needles. That's what I get for starting a project while sick! But it turned out okay, it was just a tight fit for all the stitches towards the end. When I do one for myself it will go much faster with circular needles.


Picking up the stitches on the two fronts was kind of a pain... I couldn't get the right number of stitches... either ten or twelve too many or twenty short. There ended up being a small picked up stitch deficit on one side, but everything turned out fine. If I can find someone to model this, I will post a picture of it in action.


Now back to the pink hoodie. I have about 6 inches done on never-ending sleeve the second.
Yay. I really want to make some socks. The pattern for the clessidra socks on knitty is amazing. They are the sexiest socks I've ever seen! So I need to start practicing, practicing!!