Tip #2.

Here's a tip for Selvedge stitch-lovers which involves screwing up a row in a lace pattern.

Okay, background info: I love the selvedge stitch. It makes everything look so pretty while you're knitting, makes seams so easy to crochet, and makes scarves look tidier.

My favorite selvedge? The (Sl 1st st PW, k last st) every row.

That being said, when I am looking over a pattern, planning out my project (since I like never follow the pattern as is), I check to see if the pattern author has accounted for selvedge stitches or not.

For example, sometimes the lace pattern is a "multiple of 10 sts plus 2" or something, and if the author accounts for a the selvedge, then it will say "C/O 84 sts." Which breaks down into this:

Selvedge st, (10 x 8) + 2, selvedge st = 84.

BUT sometimes the author thinks that if you want a selvedge st, you'll add it yourself, in which case, they'll tell you to cast on 82. I think this one is the most common in patterns.

HOWEVER sometimes I'm feeling saucy, and if the first and last stitches of the lace pattern are knitted in plain St st, I will incorporate my own selvedge stitch right into the pattern.

This means that I cast on 82, but since the first and last sts are always in St st, I have those sts as the selvedge.

Don't ask me why I do this. I don't know if it's because I think I'll be done faster w/o those extra 2 sts every row, or what, but I'll do this kind of crap on a whim. And it gets me into trouble, which brings me to my tip.

If you are a dimwit like me and love to make your knitting life more complicated, so you do the same thing that I described above, for Heaven's sake, don't selvedge without thinking about it because that's what you usually do! Here's a description of the mistake:

Okay, you're knitting along, concentrating on every lace row because you realize that a stitch in time saves nine or whatever, and you come to the next RS row, and it says "K1, YO, K4..." So you K1, YO, K4, and so on until the last few stitches are upon you, and you realize that there's only 4 sts left when you're supposed to K5. Aw, sheeit.

So. You silently pray that the mistake wasn't too far back, so you can just tink 10 sts or something, and then get on with it. You start from the beginning of the knitting, like you always do when this happens, to chant this row's repeat as you check to make sure you did it right, when ACK!!

Your %#@$!* mistake was at the mother %#@$!* beginning!! You selvedged and then started the repeat, without thinking, like you usually do, but in this case that was BAD because you should have just selvedged and then YO'd, but instead you offset everything in the damn row by1 stitch by K1-ing first! DAMN IT!

So, you have to tink back all the way to the beginning of the row, all because you're an idiot like me.

Now, what's the lesson here? Is it that we should pay attention more carefully, or is it that we should just add the %#@$!* 2 selvedge sts at the start so we won't have to %#@$!* worry about it?

That's for you to decide. :)

Lacy Pullover Revival.

I finally buckled down and took the Lacy Pulli with me to class (which means that I HAVE to work on it between classes, because I don't have anything else to work on), and I fixed that messed up row. Then, on the next row, I did the unthinkable. The unSPEAKable.

But I'll tell you, because I think everyone could benefit. I'm too nice, I know. I'm going to make it Tip#2, I just decided, so wait for that in a sec.

As for now, I have proof that I worked on the front of the LC:



This picture is cool because it shows the two bottoms (ribbed and rolled) for a comparison shot. See how the ribbing shows off the pattern better?

And you can also tell, I think, from the picture that I inverted the two lace patterns like it does in the original pattern. I made this one into a pullover, when it was a wrap sweater before, if you can recall, and here's how I did it:

I just cast on the same amount of sts as for the back, and then it was just a matter of doing the math to get the lace pattern inversion to work.

Then, I broke the st count into 3 parts, as diagramed below in crappy .gif format, and matched up the stitch count as well as possible. I was very fortunate because the middle ended up with 22 sts, and that ribbed lace pattern is a 10 + 2 repeat! Perfect!



And there's a little more to it, but I don't want to get too much into the pattern. If you've bought the Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005 issue, and you want the naughty details, then email me at my new badass Gmail account: 53stitches aat gmail doooottt cooooooommmmm.

And lastly, here's the reason why knitting has been at an all time low:



Yes, if you look closely, you can see that I have romance novels, a book of erotic stories, and a couple of total smut comic books. Then to the right of that, I have a pile of library books about sexual consent itself and about sexual consent as it relates to literature.

My paper covers sexual consent in 3 levels of sexual literature. (From sweet to seductive to scandalous!) I'm glad that I chose this topic, even if it did grow to kind of large proportions - it started out as being only about sexual consent in romance novels - because the data collection process for this paper was the most interesting that I've experienced yet!

This was me: *Skim skim skim.* Sex scene! Okay what's happening here? *Reads sex scene.* Okay, she says no, but she actually wants to have sex. And, okay, he says yes and he means it. *Scribbles check marks in appropriate boxes.*

Repeat 14 times, 5 times over each genre, and there you have it! Research!

Also totally awesome is the fact that the data that I've collected really is interesting, and shows very salient patterns. Always a good thing when you're trying to prove something.

Anyway, on that note... paper writing must commence! Peace!

Friday. Kind of.

It's just reeeaaally early on Friday... Yeah, that's it. But seriously, I consider this still Thursday night.

Anyway.

I did a bunch in the way of paper writing today. I'm doing a paper on sexual consent for a linguistics class (Language and Gender) that I'm taking, in which I analyze the sex scenes in 3 romance novels for the dialogue and/or described body language surrounding sexual consent.

I had never read a romance novel before but I was really not surprised when I encountered a sex scene about every 30 pages or so. Methinks I might have to limit my discussion to 3 scenes per book.

So why am I blogging about that? Because there was a severe lack of knitting around here because of it.

I managed to finish CCK's back (or front) and knitted about 2" of the front (or back), and I am a little over halfway done with the right front of the Hooded Pulli.

Here's the debut picture of the CCK pieces along with the balls of yarn that are helping to create it. What a pretty and colorful picture these make!



At first, I was skeptical about this stripe sequence, but the more I knitted, the more I loved it! My roommate says that the single purple stripe in the sequence is the coolest part (can you see it in the pic? It's between the navy blue and the white. On my moniter, it looks like something is there, but I wouldn't have known it was a light purple stripe. Well, now you know.)

And here's one of the Hooded Pullover progress:



The front piece is so thin because that's only 1/3 of the total front width, since I'm going to be adding that ribbed center.

Also, I have somewhat of a dilemma: I don't know the first thing about drop sleeves, since I've never done them, but I made my sweater front slop a little on the center side so that the white ribbed part won't just go straight up, or be too floppy, but now I'm regretting doing that, because I think that the drop sleeves will pull the shoulder out enough as it is, so the ribbing rill pull out to the side TOO much. I have no clue.

Maybe I should rip back and knit this without any shaping like it does in the pattern. Oh, and in the pattern picture it doesn't seem like the lace part sticks straight up or behaves too frumpily.

Perhaps I am in good shape.

Incidentally, I am NOT in good shape, because as further evidence will point out, I had a weak moment tonight...



SNACK ATTACK!! Total evidence of severe snackage.

And on the Lacy Pulli front (ha!), I still only have like an inch of knitting done on the front because I royally FUBARed the last row that I worked on, and it was one of those moments where I redid it 3 times, and still screwed it up, so I didn't want to even look at it for the rest of the day.

So it's just chillin' with the messed up row still intact. I wanted to take a picture, but my roommate is asleep and probably wishing that I would be follow her lead instead of taking pictures of my knitting at 2am.

On that note, I'm going to sleep. An uber-long day awaits me, full of class-attending and paper-writing.

Awesome.

Peace.

If You Can Call it a Gallery...

Well, my HTML skills are seriously lacking, because the only way I've learned is from online tutorials, but I created a gallery for my Completed Items.

I used to have a Diary with Diaryland, and I thought, in remembering the format, that it would be an okay setup for a gallery. So I scooted on over there, set up another diary, got a Gold Membership for $24 a year (nice discount), and set it up.

It took forever. Seriously. Hours.

I made it so that each entry showcases one item, and then the archives page just has a list of my completed objects.

Take a look!

I like it. Well, it's a little...bland...but I wanted it to match my blogger as much as I could make it for now. It's not even close to done, but at least I have all of my entries in there, and now over time I can make it look good.

A Diaryland Gallery is a good idea if you:

1) Don't have Typepad or some other fancy blogging device
2) Despise flickr. DESPISE!

I recommend it! Peace.

Hump Day!

Man, I have a bunch of paper writing to do today. Le sigh.

But in happier news, I finished the back of my Lacy Pullover this morning, and I LOVE it!

Proof:



Isn't it a great feeling when iffy changes (picking up sts and knitting an inch of ribbing down on a lacy sweater) work out? I'm one happy chica.

Proof:



AND you want proof that I'm an idiot?



Yeah, those two eyelets are off...and I don't care. I left them as the ever proverbial "Glaring Rachele Mistake." The philosophy of leaving one huge mistake in my knitting as a "signature" got me through my beginning knitter stages.

I have about an inch of knitting done on the front of this sweater.

More on this sweater, and more on the "blue and white thing that is so hard to photograph because the white keeps looking don't-go-into-the-light bright" tomorrow!

Peace!

Tip #1 - Blocking - The Wiggle Method.

First of all, I hate blocking. It never stays for me, and it takes too long, so I hardly ever do it.

What I do instead is use The Wiggle Method. It's a mid-knitting blocking method that I'll illustrate with the following pictures.

Slightly stretch the knitting, holding the live stitches and the needle that they are on in your hand so that you don't stretch those live stitches out too much. Then rather rapidly do what the pictures suggest.





This works great when you want to make your stitches look all...um...I believe "purdy" is the technical term.

And for regular St st, it Beats the Hell Outta blocking! (WHOOP!)

The Hooded Pullover Has Taken Over.

I have been knitting on my version of the Hooded Pullover in the Spring/Summer 2005 VK, and it isn't even on my On The Needles list yet.

I am done with the sleeve and done with the ribbing for one of the fronts. It's so skinny because a sideways ribbing is going to go between the two fronts, if that makes sense.



But this progress only occurred after I had knitted about 5 inches on the blue and realized that the sleeve was wonky. Turns out that the original pattern instructs you to decrease several stitches after the ribbing so that it doesn't pull in whatsoever. The pulli is super-loose, and the ribbing really does look funny if you don't decrease those stitches, because instead of creating the "my sleeves are sytlishly loose" effect, it creates the "my sleeves are way too baggy" effect.

So RIP I went. My man helped me through it. Here's the tell-tale evidence of a ripping: ball of yarn with numerous yarn wraps around it, pile of crimpy yarn, knitted piece with litle evidence of yarn ball color.



And I'm not ignoring the Lacy Pulli; I'm past the armpits on it - one more pattern repeat and I'm done with the back. Woo hoo!

Is it sad that I'm already considering dramatically decreasing the amount of knitting on this project by altering the sleeves?

Here's my thoughts: I want to add 2x2 ribbing on the bottom so that it doesn't roll (plus if I didn't it would be too short - only 12"), then I want to add ribbing to the V-neck to tie it together, maybe using the tennis sweater from the same issue as a guide.

So I was thinking maybe I could, instead of making the lacy sleeves in the pattern, make uber-short lacy sleeves w/o the bottom border, and then just add like 2" of 2x2 ribbing at the bottom. I think I'll knit the front of the pulli and go from there.

Knitting Goals
Deadline - May 15th

Finish 3 sweaters:
1) Lacy Pulli
2) CCK
3) Hooded Pulli

Whew! Dass a lodda knittin'. I think I can do it though. No more WIPs until I finished those.

Oh, and I also have an ends-weaving party (of 2) to attend. The attendants? Yours Truly and the Psychedelic Squares Afghan... Awesome.

Lacy Pulli Progress.

Here's some progress pictures of the Lacy Pullover.





I decided to try and pick up some stitches from the bottom edge to see what I can do about that roll.



I have since taken those picked up stitches off, because I didn't like the 4x4 rib that I put on it. Perhaps I'll pick up stitches again when I'm done and see what I can do.

While I was knitting on this project, I got bored with the lace pattern and began knitting on #2 of my "Thinking About It" section in the sidebar. I decided to knit this in purple with white edges in order to use up the purple that I can never seem to yield good results with.

I have a tiny bit of progress to show:



And for shits and grins, here's me!



I'm all, "Peace!"

Currently.

Okay, now for a WIP.

I am working on the Wrapped Lace Cardigan in the Spring 2005 Vogue Knitting. Of course, I am modifying it... I'm making it into a V-neck pullover, knit in lt. turquoise Cotton-Ease.

So far I am about five inches into the back. I don't like the rolled edges, so when I'm all done, I think something will need to occur to rectify them. (Maybe some picked up sts and a tiny smidge of deep ribbing... I dont know. Maybe some crocheted edge, not that I know how to do that.)



The bottom boder pattern is cool looking:



The middle panel is cool too, but it will look MUCH cooler after 1 repeat. Which reminds me, I'm also lengthening this sucka by adding a repeat of that middle pattern Cropped + Big Booty = No-No.



I'm seriously lured by a Bonne Marie pattern that I didn't even know existed. It's the Scoop du Jour, which you can download right here.

But I'm already pining after another modified pullover from the VK. In fact, I started on this sweater, and got through an inch of knitting when I realized that because I had just finished Stevie Ray Shell (which is entirely St st) I was incredibly sick of the endless sea of it. So I hunted down another pattern that I thought may be cool and started it instead. (The new lace pulli.)

Anyway, I've spent way too much time on the computer, and without needles in my hands. My goal for today is to get through 2 repeats on the middle lace pattern. (Lace goes slow, man.)

Peace out.

A Myriad of Recent FOs.

Okay, I'll make this short and sweet.

This is Da Clappah, knitted for my Mom for Mother's Day in a royal purple (deeper than the pictures show - this was tough to capture) LB MicroSpun:



And here's a close-up of the stitch:



This here is the Tres ChicKami (It has the bottom fair-isle border from "Butterfly" in Rowan #33.):



And here are a few close-ups:

Top:



Bottom:



Inside of fair-isle:



Okay, last but not least - This is my version of the LoTech Sweat from Bonne Marie. (Buy it here!)



Close-ups:

Collar:



The cool raglan ridge that crocheting seams + making raglan decreases right after/before selvedge stitch. (That is, instead of doing Selvedge st, k2, k2tog, I just did Selvedge st, k2tog.)



A dark close-up of the buttons used. That yellowy glow is part of the button - they were perfect!



Finally, the button band:



If you want to see another LoTech Sweat made with this yarn, check out Rachael's FO page. Coincidentally, she chose this exact yarn and color!

I hope this page loads okay!

Next up - A real new post. Peace.

Oh Em Gee.

My man's parents got me a Digital Camera as a graduation present!

Wowee!

I took a bunch of pictures of my knitting projects, past and present, (about 40 pictures in all), and now I'm like, So Now What?

I think I want to go back through my entries and add the necessary pictures... Is that lame? Actually what I really want is a Finished Objects Gallery. Hm.

Maybe this calls for a Diaryland diary. I think that the format is conducive to a gallery, or at least I could fake it. Anyhow, I'll figure that out a bit later.

As for now, here's a picture of the Stevie Ray Shell:



And here's a close-up of the collar:



And a close-up of the short row shaping for teh boobies:



Beautiful pictures, right?

I LOVE my new camera. I'm about to create a couple more new posts to show the Tres ChicKami, the Modified Lo-Tech Sweat, and Da Clappah. Then I think I might even have a real, live new post having to do with a current WIP! Wow...

Lost: Sanity.

It looks calm, cool, and a bit like having only 3 WIPs.

Have you seen it?

Me either.

I finished my Tres ChicKami last night and I worked a little on Stevie Ray. About 1/4 up the back on that little guy.

Then, in a complete moment of weakness, I started a small fling of a project. It's an adaptation of the Lace Leaf Scarf (patt. #35) in the Spring/Summer 2005 VK. The pattern calls for the scarf to be 3 repeats of the leaf stitch wide, and I went for a much skinnier scarf that's only 1 repeat wide. Yay for 17-stitches-wide scarves!

I'm doing this in an off-white, creamy Bernat Cotton Tots that I hadn't ever seen before. (So of course I had to pick up 2 balls of it!) So far it's so cute and so fast to knit. I'm going to knit it until I like the length.

THEN, this morning, I became drawn to the idea of adapting the hooded pullover in that same issue. It's pattern #11. I don't really like the flower lace thingy, and I totally am not digging on that mobius strip thing they've got going...

But I like the loose sleeves, and I like that I can put horizontal ribbing in place of the lace crap.

I don't have enough lt. turquoise Cotton-Ease to do the whole thing, I think, so I'm going to knit ti all sans ribbing first, and assess how much is left over. If it's enough to do the ribbing, then yay, a solid colored sweater! If not, then it's either going to be blue ribbing for a whimsical sweater, or white ribbing for a more, I don't know, dainty sweater.

Cute, cute, cute.

BUT, I'm not starting on this until Stevie Ray is an FO. And, until I finish my Spring Fling of a scarf, too.

Happy Tuesday. Peace.

Stevie Ray

The initial plan was not to name this shell "Stevie Ray" but "Stockinette Rolls" because the shell was really made as an embracing of the behavior of pure St st.

Then I decided that "Stockinette Rolls" is a horrible name. Instead I went with an immortalizing of the initials with the name "Stevie Ray." Clevah.

I made a crude drawing of the shell in MSPaint (Viva la Paint!) because I have yet to receive a digital camera from the camera fairies.

Note that the thin lines aroung the armholes and neck slit are purl stitches (like mini-ribbing). Also note that while it seems like it's a tiny V-neck, it isn't. That slit is just straight up, but the way that the pattern behaves makes it seem Vee'd.

Anyway, here's the pattern. It's my first fully written pattern evah, so I'm sure it's pretty botched. Plus, its only written in my size! Awesome.

Stevie Ray Shell:

To fit approximate measurements: Bust-38", Waist-31", Length to underarm-15"

Gauge: 19 st/4" on Size US8 needles

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease

General notes: Finished measurements are 34" around at bottom, 33" at waist, and back to 34" at rib cage, with short rows added for bust room. Top is designed to be very fitted with a little ease at the waist. Decreases and Increases can be executed in whatever manner is preferred. I did my decreases as k2tog/ssk pairs, and my increases as m1's.

Pattern:

FRONT:
Cast on 80 sts and work in St st for about 3" (Edges are designed to roll up a bit. The seams will stop the bottom from rolling too much, so resist the urge to knit this up in the round.)

Decrease 1 st at both ends on the next RS row
Work 7 rows in St st
Decrease 1 st at both ends on the next (RS) row (76 sts on needle)

Work about 6" even in St st

Increase 1 st at both ends on the next RS row
Work 9 rows in St st
Increase 1 st at both ends on the next (RS) row (80 sts on needle)

Work even until work measures 13" from bottom edge when bottom is held flat (not rolled up)
Work short rows until 6 stitches are wrapped on both sides (12 rows total)
Work in St st until side seams measure 15" from Cast On edge

Bind off 5 sts at beg of next 2 rows for armholes (RS then WS)

Note: At the sides (where the armholes are) the edges might roll in a bit, which may look unattractive to some (including me). I added k1,p1,k1,p1,k1 to both sides of the pattern all the way up to the shoulder. That way some pulling in from the ribbing creates shaping, and the armhole edges don't roll.

Work even for about 1 inch, then divide work in half to make neck split.

Working both sides at the same time, and working k1,p1,k1 at neck split edge, knit until piece measures 7.5" from armhole bind off. Then bind off all sts knit-wise on a RS row on both halves of piece.

BACK:
Work exactly the same as the FRONT but omit the short rows (So when you finish increasing the second time, work even until work measures 15", then continue in pattern). Also omit the neck split.

FINISHING:
Crochet (or sew, you traditionalist, you) the side seams

Then, crochet the top edge about 2" in on each side - This leaves the middle of the top edge open, giving the shirt a boat-neck and allowing the neck to roll a little so that it matches the bottom edge.

All done!

This was a nice, fun, and easy shell that is plain, but has good detailing and incorporates a few important ways that knitted fabric behaves.

Email me with questions at racheletib AT yahoo doooot cooooooooom. (Die spammers, die. Peace, I swear.)

Here's the (Revised) Plan, Stan.

The Ribby Pulli is also a no-go. Well, that's not entirely true.

Cotton-Ease, in my experience, is horridly inconsistent between dyelots. No two dyelots are alike in color, which is fine (although at times two different dyelots can look like two different colors), but sometimes the dyelots are slightly different thicknesses too.

I swatched the white that I am using for the Ribby Pulli with a different dyelot than the one that I am using to knit it up, and it seems like the swatch was good for size 6 needles, but the fabric that it is knitting up to be seems too thick.

So, RIP, Ribby Pulli, for now. I have to get some Size 8 needles to knit this with. Also, I may do this in two separate pieces instead of in the round, like I have been.

Maybe.

And what of the Ribby Pulli purple sleeve that I have started? I don't particularly care for that either... Oof.

Revamping commences.

Speaking of revamping, I ripped out the Copy Cat sweater, and I am already using the blue to make a shell that I sort of designed on the fly.

Pattern on next post!

Hopefully everything makes sense in the pattern. I mainly wrote it because I was bored, but maybe when I'm totally popular (hardy har) I'll have some pictures, some more sizes, and who knows what else.

Alrighty - Peace out, y'all.

Here's the Plan, Stan.

Scratch the Copy Cat sweater for now. I'm really not feeling it.

With the afore-mentioned 6 balls of gorgeous blue Cotton Ease, I am going to make a 3/4-sleeved Copy Cat Klaralund. I've already made one Copy Cat Klara a while back with TINY-gauged LB Wool Ease Sport-Weight, so I have an idea of what the pattern is like.

I think that I'm going to add eyelets to the extended garter at the shoulders. Or not. I'll have to experiment.

As for now, the Tres ChicKami is almost finished, and I am already swatching for the blue Copy Cat Klara (CCK).

What will ever become of the Wool Ease "baby" blanket (WIP #1)? I'm not sure. Time will tell.

Peace outta heah.

Wow. (Alternatively titled: "A Knitting Success Story.")

I am through 8 raglan decreases on the front of the Tres ChicKami and I just tried it on for the first time.

I almost always take my knitting off of the needles and try it on waaaay before I get to this point, but for some reason I had a lot of confidence in the small changes that I made in the waist decreasing (making it a more subtle slope by decreasing every 6th row instead of 4th).

Needless to say, it fits like a freaking condom. I love this thing, and can't wait to walk around in it. I had been toying with what I am going to do with the top part...

The bottom has that pink band around it, and as my BF suggested, I was considering simply reflecting that band at the top edge and making the straps pink. But, now I am thinking that would make the top look too immature, in a way. So I am now considering making a tiny fairisle design - very simple, like just 2 rows of zigzag pink dots or something - and then making the straps white.

And I think that that's the winning design. Definitely it needs the white straps, I decided when I tried it on.

Anyhow, so it's a huge success. I was afraid of the waist shaping for a while and would incorporate side ribbing instead all the time, because one time I had a horrible experience with a tanktop that had Sweater Standing Away from Body (SSAB) syndrome.

But it looks like the more gradual, subtle shaping is what I need. Plus, it helps that I lengthened the top by about an inch.

I'll probably finish this sucker tonight and begin surgery on the Copy Cat sweater. You know, I just bought 6 balls of a gorgeous blue Cotton Ease, and I might rip out the entire sweater thus far, and start it over in that new blue.

I could make another ChicKami with the blue that I rip out...

Hmmmmm.

(I hate when I get like this.)

(Peace out.)

The Tres ChicKami.

I had originally opted to incorporate side-ribbing and a pink stripes across the chest of my white-background ChicKami, but then I received my Rowan #33 in the mail (finally!) and discovered the bottom fairisle border from the pattern "Butterfly" by Kim Hargreaves.

So I cast on with the pink and worked the border pattern after the bottom ribbing on the ChicKami pattern. I am trying to pay close attention to Fit, so wanting to make my Kami longer, I did my decreases every 6 rows instead of every 4, and I'll make the measurement up to the armpits 15.5-16" instead of the 14.5" recommended.

I can't wait to wear this with a nice khaki linen skirt.

So far I have 9", and I just started the increases, and I was thinking that there is a whole lot of bright-ass white in this Kami... I was wondering if maybe there should have been more pink.

I discussed this with the ol' boyfriend, and he actually came up with a possible fix! He suggested that I mirror the pink border at the top of the Kami and then make the straps pink as well. Brilliant

So when I get up further - like to a few raglan decreases - I'll decide if it's too bright-assed white.

Knit on, Knitters!! Peace out.

False Start.

Alright, so I think I had a complete false start with the baby clothes. I don't really like how the star turned out (warped, squatty, should have intarsia-ed the inside and duplicate stitched the outline, etc.) and I think I should wait until I know the gender of the baby before I knit it clothes.

Overall, I just think I got crazy when I found out about a future little human that I can knit tiny things for.

What does that mean for me?? It means that I can start my Ribby Pulli!

Bonne Marie mentioned that she is making a cotton Ribby Cardi with the ribbing in the center and plain panels on the outside, and I think that sounds like an awesome idea.

But, it sounds a lot like my Copy Cat sweater.

Speaking of Mr. Copy Cat, I really don't like him right now. I think that little pup of a sweater (20% done...) needs some in-progress overhauling. Perhaps I'll tackle that this week after I get a start on the Ribby Pulli.

It feels so nice to be done with Da Clappah!

Oh, and one last thing... Guess who got her tax return! And guess who also just got 15 balls of Cotton-Ease in lovely Spring colors!! Whoop!

For now, I'm off to look at my patterns and knit the day away. Peace.

I Cured My Clap.

Woo hoo! Da Clappah is DUNN!

Well, except for a few ends, but this only took like 4 balls of Micro Spun so not too many ends, and this project isn't "due" till Mothers' Day, so I think I'll wait to weave.

Hm, but maybe I'd better just fork it over this weekend. So perhaps a little weavage will commence tonight.

So, you guys know why I finished Clappy, don't you? Of course, it was to justify starting another project...

The boyfriend's brother is having another baby (AWESOME!), so even though that thing isn't popping out until 6 more months, and even though they don't even know whether it's a Tony or a Tonya, I've already started what I think to be a very gender neutral sweater.

I plan to make a set of raglan sweater, roll-brim hat, blankie, and booties, all with a star motif on them.

Of course I haven't really fallen in love with any layette sets or anything, so I decided to do what I do best and find some patterns that I can bastardize in order to make them flow together.

Here's what I found:

The Raglan Sweater

A pattern from this book:

But knit up in white Cotton Ease, and with the star motif (I think from the pattern "Max") from this book:

on the belly, but in light teal with a lime green outline, both Bernat Cotton Tots.

(Whew! If I had a digital camera I wouldn't have to describe! Can we say Tax Return??)

The Roll-Brim Hat

A pattern from Vintage Knits. I don't know how I'm going to incorporate stars yet for the hat.

The Blankie

I might make this up on the fly. Maybe a teal seed stitch border (zealous on the intarsia capabilities, I know. The star on the sweater came out okay though...) with a little stripe of green duplicate stitched around it 1" in from the border and then just plain knitting in the white, and in the center maybe a blown-up version of that star motif.

Then later when they pick a name I can dupicate stitch in white an initial in the center of the star. Cute!

The Booties

I have no clue on this one, but I have several to choose from, so it shouldn't be too bad.

And that's it!

I think in order for me to keep my sanity, I'll track one little project at a time in the sidebar.

But as for now I have a test in 2 hours! Flash card central...

PSA Finito Part II: Pictures.

Along with the weenie warmer that I knitted him, Lee also took pictures of my finished Psychedelic Squares Afghan right when I had finished crocheting it together. It still has a thousand-hundred ends hanging out. I'm embarrased that I haven't woven them in yet, but oh, well.

Well, here she is:



And another view with me peeking over the top of it:



Cool, huh? And someone even left a cool comment on there about it. I feel special.

Alrighty, enough updating - I've got The Clap, and I have to tend to it!

Peace out.

P.S. In the pictures, that's my cutie-cute boyfriend in the background. :)

Sweet, sweet plug by Leebs.

Last weekend my friend, Lee, came to College Station to hang out, and about three hours before he was supposed to show up, I had the brilliant idea to knit him a weenie warmer.

I happened to have some blue Cotton-Ease in a dark shade and a light shade that I could use, but what I didn't have was a set of dpn's to knit it with. I had an extra US size 8 circ, so I just decided to knit it flat and sew it up. It was a little complicated to figure out on the fly how to transfer the pattern to flat knitting, especially the gusset.

Actually, I had never knitted a gusset before. Who'd have thunk I'd learn something by knitting a weenie warmer?

It took me the whole three hours to knit and put together. I didn't think it would really get used, so I just tied the ends off and cut them instead of weaving. (Yay!)

Lee loved it, and he took a picture and put it on his weblog.

Here's that picture:



Anyway, I would love to knit the world a weenie warmer, so if you happen to wander here, and would like a weenie warmer, I'll knit you one for a nominal amount. I'll even let you pick the colors if you want! Wow! Now that's cool!

As for now, I have 1 more stitch to drop before the decreasing on Clappah. Woo hoo!

Peace.