Very sad day....

RIP Abby, "Poochie"

March 22nd, 2000- June 9th, 2008

Finished projects...YAY!

Hello y'all, I finally get a chance to share all the cool projects I have been working on and more recently finishing.

Here is a quick overview...

First off the needles after my last blog update was the Mercy beret from the Rowan Ribbon Twist Collection.
The begining of a great thing...the first two rows.

Without futher ado, here is my finished Mercy

I had found the Jackyll & Hide on Knitty and shown it to my boyfriend, Sean, one night while watching a movie. He immediately exclaimed, "MAKE ME THAT!" pointing furiously at the computer screen.

A few weeks after resting my hands from all the Christmas knitting I had done we went to Amazing Threads (yes, he goes yarn shopping with me) to find a non-scratchy yarn. I had originally wanted a superwash wool, but couldn't find the right fit for Sean's picky tastes.

We settled on a very black Berocco Comfort.

After finishing Sean's "hat" I still had 1/2 a skein left over so I had him go over to AT (Amazing Threads) to pick up another in the same dye lot.

After I acquired the necessary yarn I started one for myselfDon't I look sexy? ;)

Now I have been working on the Pinwheel Sweater by Elann for a while, I just haven't posted much about it.

Here are the colors I started with, 6 skeins of Lion Brand Wool Ease. The start of the pinwheel and a detail of the pretty yarn overs.

The division for the sleeves, the loopy I-cord bind off, and the finished body of the Pinwheel with many ends to weave in. :(

A lovely picture of Sean's mom sleeping on him. I brought the Pinwheel to work on at the hospital while waiting for Sean's sister to have her baby.

And after twenty some hours of labor, Emily Marie Hokason was born on January 27th, 2008 3:10am!

7lbs, 20 inches

So two weeks later I finally got the energy to finish the sleeves and weave in the ends. Finally a finished baby size Pinwheel! :)

I decided not to do the ribbing on the sleeves since I didn't really mesh with the rest of the garment. Overall I'm really happy I chose this route, I used #5's for the garter stitch "ribbing."

So shortly after I finished the Pinwheel I got on a bender to finish everything in my massive knitting bag. I found Crystal's Fetching, which were supposed to be given as a Christmas gift over a month ago, and decided to finish these puppies.

All that was left to knit was the thumbs but since I ran into a bit of a problem with finding more of the yarn it was left to the wayside. Web's saved my but again, I didn't get the same dye lot but it didn't matter. No one could tell the difference between the two.

Crystal was actually REALLY excited to finally get these on her paws. She said they're perfect for texting in the cold.

All that's left to knit up over the next few days is the Aspen hat from Twinkle's Big City Knits book. My sister demanded this hat for her birthday which is quickly creeping up on me (it's the 17th). Eeeck!

Sorry for the scatter brain posts, I do most of my blogging when I get a spare minute (which is usually during psychology class).

Anyway, happy knitting and I hope to see my friends in MN and WI at the knit out at the Mall of America this Saturday and Sunday.

-Sara

Catching up

So it has been quite a while since my last real post. Several projects have been started, completed, frogged, and some just plain forgot about.

First off I'd like to share pictures of last year's big project that I haven't had the opportunity to share with others, my first sweater.

This sweater was intended as a gift for my boyfriend, Sean, on our 2 year anniversary. I knit the entire sweater in less than one week! I chose the very simple and easy to understand Men's Neckdown Pullover pattern from Diane Soucy's Knitting Pure and Simple pattern line. I cannot stress enough how I love Soucy's patterns, they are easy to read and understand for first time sweater knitters.

But anywho...here's the pictures (these were taken Christmas eve this year, I was not able to get pictures when I first gifted it due to our breakup shortly after

presenting Sean with the sweater. BOYFRIEND CURSE STRIKES AGAIN!!!)

As you can see from the photographs, the sweater while a valiant first attempt still looks extremely handmade. There was an entire row of twisted stitches (uhg!).

Sean hardly ever wears it, he claims he does not want to "wreck it."

By the way...he came crawling back 3 weeks after dumping me. ;)

Now onto Crystals ballet sweater. I literally was sewing this together minutes before our present opening on Christmas eve. Everyone was waiting for me to finish, though I think the wait was worth it.

As you can see from the pictures Crystal is very pregnant (she's due on the 28th of January) with my future niece.

The sweater was not meant as a mid-drift top though she was so excited and couldn't find a tank top so just threw it on over her bra. It is so soft and fluffy and I was sure the color was too pink but she loved it.

Next we have Sean's mom, Wendy. I made her the Weekend Neckdown Pullover by Diane Soucy. From the measurements I was given (by Wendy) she was sized at a medium, though judging from the way the sweater fit I should have made the small.


The sleeves were way too wide for my tastes, she of course said everything was perfect. I was later told that she really enjoyed it because she crochets several items for others and has never received anything handmade in return.


The sweater was knit out of Rowan's Big Wool in "smooch" (#31) on size US 15 & 17.

It took me approximately 8 days to knit and an hour to weave in ends then block.


I really enjoyed the yarn, the loose twist did lend its self to fuzzing up a little bit during knitting.





The sweater I made for my sister, Amanda, and my grandmother were the same pattern as Wendy's. I made a total of 3 Weekend Neckdown Pullover for Christmas presents this year; pretty sure I would be able to knit this sweater without referencing the pattern. Both sweaters were knit in Rowan's Spray (40% acrylic, 60% wool) in "Seascape." The yarn was easy to work with though it was no merino, it had a tough almost starchy feeling to it. Hopefully this will soften up more after being laundered.





The brown thing is my Mom's hooded tunic from guess who....DIANE SOUCY! I ended up having to rip out several inches later on, turns out knitting in the dark while watching a movie with the ball and chain isn't such a great idea when you add a new ball of yarn and assume you have all the same dye lot. ALWAYS CHECK THE BALL BAND (even in the dark)!

Right now this project still lays unfinished, this sweater was a Christmas gift which is now choosing to be a birthday present if I don't get a move on.
This is the wonderful Sean battling a tangled mess of Lorna's Laces Shepard worsted after I frogged 5 inches off the sweater.


Crystals Fetching fingerless gloves were put on the back burner due to lack of time and stress overload. I didn't start these until after giving her the ballet sweater on Xmas eve.

This was my first time using a pattern from Knitty and also my first time knitting with any Debbie Bliss yarn.

For this project I used Cashmerino Aran in a luscious sage color. It was a dream to knit up, especially when knit at a tighter gauge creating a thick velvet-like knitted fabric.

This project is currently waiting for the UPS man to drop off the second ball of yarn since one was not enough. These should be off the needles by Friday...YIPEE!!!

Below are six, count 'em SIX gorgeous skeins of Soft Chunky. This was an extravagant gift from my mom that honestly I will feel guilty knitting it; the yarn is just too nice for the Shopping Tunic that I want to make from the Twinkle Knits book (this was the accompanying gift to the yarn from my mom).

For right now the yarn is on display in a pretty basket waiting to be knit into something breathtaking and not just ordinary.



Seed Stitch Baby shoes!



My next endeavour was the Seed Stitch baby shoes from Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss. I loved how they looked in the book and seemed simple enough for an afternoon knit...boy was I wrong. While the patter was simple in design it was written in a way that for some reason I just keep screwing up (in retrospect, it was written just fine and I concluded I was crazy that particular day).

The picture on the left is an example of how I misread the pattern and only did increases on one side of the piece instead of the instructed both sides.

Seaming in progress while watching Marie Antoinette (great movie, btw).


The finished shoes, they turned out fairly well with the exception of some puckering at the toes.




The Bernat Hat...uck!







This fine specimen of yarn is what Sean's sister's boyfriend (wow we're practically siblings), Jon, had given me for Christmas. It turned out to be a gag gift knowing that I only knit with natural fibers; inside the yarn was a gift card for Webs.


Not being the one to let yarn of any kind go to waste I set out to create a hat for Jon to thank him for his gift and thoughtfulness.


Sean modeling to help determine when to start the crown shaping, Jon has an enormous cranium and I wanted to be sure it fit him perfectly. Charlie Murphy also stopped in to help Sean control his wild out of control ball of yarn.

Sean and Charles...awww



Anyway, it is now 3:16am and I best be getting to bed. I will try to stop by the blog more often and give quick updates and pictures but honestly I spend most of my time over on Ravelry looking for ideas and tips for my next projects. Geez it's hard to find time for knitting these days :(

Until next time...stay warm!

- Sara

Very very HAPPY!!!

Finally I cast-on my Mom's Christmas present on the 7th and have made significant progress towards its completion.

In less than a week I have 10 rows left on the body, and today I am just finishing the body. Why does that always happen? Once again I blame the sleeves!!!! :(

So after tonight I have two sleeves and a hood left to knit...no seaming...YAY!

I still have 2 pairs of Dashing, a pair of Fetching, and the Debbie Bliss seed stich baby shoes. I think I will be able to finish all this as long as I hammer down and get it off the needles.

Making progress...

So far this is what I have done on my ballet sweater
<---- The back to the sweater. This was the first section of the sweater that I knit. My gauge was off due to the fact that I have never worked with any yarn of this kind (the fluffy, fuzzy, tangly stuff). It is supposed to have that kind of airy, light feeling; hence the loose gauge.

Then I worked on the ties, 42 friggin' inches later I was done...well with the first one. :(

On to the boobie sections! The left and right front of the sweater, which as you can probably guess is more like a wrap than a sweater.

Now that doesn't look like much but that right there my friend is a sleeve. A beautiful sleeve, not mis-shaped or baggy like my other sweaters. If you have looked at my pictures on flickr you'll know that I am not the best person at making sleeves.

Yes, I can produce a sleeve. But it is never really what it should be or at least how I think a sleeve should look/fit.

I should be done with the actual knitting on this sweater by tomorrow then it is on to the fun part...blocking. And then the really fun part, sewing it all together (did you pick up the sarcasm?).

Sewing a garment together is something that I have never done. I have sewn stuff on a sewing machine, and a little quilting but is putting knitted pieces together the same? I worry the finishing of this sweater will make the entire thing look like cat yak. I'll try reading a little of a book I borrowed from the library written entirely on finishing techniques and how to make your knitting look professional.

Other than wrapping up the ballet sweater I've been working on cataloging my yarn stash to put up on Ravelry. That was quite a job! I quickly realized that I thought I had more than I actually do. :(

Hopefully the next time I come on here the ballet sweater will be finished and sewn together.

Until then,

Sara