Tivoliness

 

What? Ballet type shirt, one of the few things I’ve made for myself this year.
Pattern: Grumperina’s Tivoli with some lace added on the bottom.
Yarn: Paton’s Grace (100% mercerized cotton, 136 yards), 3 skeins. The color is called Tangelo.

I’ve been wanting to try Tivoli for so long, but never found the right yarn. I didn’t have the funds for fancy yarn and really didn’t want to make it out of acrylic, because, ew, Florida, hot, acrylic, melty. OK, so I’ve never had that happen (yet), but who knows.

Anyway, one day I was looking through the clearance bin at Michael’s, because I once found Chenille at 75% off there, so whenever we’re there, I look. Ten times. At least. But yeah. That’s where I found this yarn for $1 per skein. It would never have crossed my mind to use orange hadn’t it been on sale, but I love it.

I made the next to smallest size and opted out of the picot edging, but added some lace instead just, well, because I could. I think it’s a little short and are thinking about adding another inch or so, but Amanda says that would be crazy. It’s Florida, for God’s sake.

Meshing pinwheels

My progress with the Pinwheel Blanket. I put together my two longest Denise cords and it’s already outgrowing them! And it’s not even close to finished. Not even half. It’s crazy. Also, I wanted to make it in one color, but didn’t have enough yarn, so stripes it is.

 

What? Mesh Bag
Pattern: Loosely based on Knitty’s Kitchen sink, but I’m pretty sure I changed it around enough to call it my own. When I get some better pictures of it I may put the pattern up.
Yarn: Sirdar Spree Chunky (60% cotton/40% acrylic, 149 yards), two skeins. The color is 092/Riviera.

I actually first made the Saturday Market Bag, but found that it was way too… well, loose, for me. I carry so much crap that within minutes of leaving home the bag was hanging by my knees and the straps kept twisting around each other. I didn’t like the way it worked, but I didn’t like the look of Kitchen sink, especially not how the handles are separate and then come together. So I started sketching.

It has the same mesh stitch as Kitchen sink, but seed stitch instead of what is used in that pattern. It’s also much smaller, doesn’t have a rounded bottom, and I choose to put mesh stitch pretty far up the handles to make them sturdier. More pictures to come!

Another baby blanket?

I haven’t been knitting much lately. Life has been so crazy. I do however feel like I need to post. I’ve been working on a baby blanket for some time now. I made a really cute design, with this picture from Grumperina’s blog as a base. I added some stuff, intarsia squares with little images on, and well, yeah. It was turning out really good. But. Yes, of course there is a but. But I was only about 1/10 done (halfway done with the first strip out of five) and I could not make myself keep knitting.

I think the problem is that I hate purling. It doesn’t matter how fast I get (combined knitting does wonders!), I still hate it. With a passion. And then of course, I started thinking about the Pinwheel Blanket. I’ve tried to start it so many times, but never managed to do the “cast on five stitches and put them on four dpns and go” part. This time I remember these oh so smart directions on how to get around it, so I tried again. And it worked! Somehow mindless stockinette is so much better in the round.

My last finished object before this was a bag. This bag to be exact:

 

What? Felted entrelac bag.
Pattern: My own. One day when I haven’t been off my meds for the last three days I will write the pattern up. Or perhaps put the pattern up for sale. I haven’t decided yet.
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Merino, 223 yards, two skeins of burgundy, one skein of peacock.

I submitted this bag to the third Stitch n’ Bitch book, but I must have sent it in a day late, because I did not get an e-mail like other people who submitted stuff saying she was still looking things over.

Anyway, I had the Sophie bag since a long time, but it just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I have too much crap. So I made this. The second picture shows just how much stuff it holds (and the colors are more accurate). The day it was taken the bag contained:

a bottle of vitamin water, a bottle of regular water, two textbooks, a Sudoko book, two knitting projects, six bus schedules, a wallet, a cell phone, a floppy disk, a ruler, three bottles of pills, a bag of Sourpatch Kids, a bus pass, three pens, a stack of post-its, a bottle operer… Do I need to continue?

So much to do, so little time

I’ve been contemplating starting up a new knitblog. You know, start fresh and all that crap. Then I went and looked over my old entries and decided that I do want to keep them. Yes, some of the stuff I’ve made is mediocre at best, but you can still see me develop my skills as a knitter and that’s awesome. So I’m keeping it. 

I have so much to update on, although that will have to wait. School is kicking my ass and I need new batteries for my camera. I also have to come up with a name for my mesh bag before I can put the pattern up. So much to do, so little time…

Finally!

Dear blog, how I have neglected you! I haven’t gotten lazy, I promise, just stressed. Major surgery and unemployment of your better half, bipolar siblings moving in with puppies and boyfriends in tow, having to write a thesis but being stubborn and chosing a subject that you just can’t find any material pertaining to, and last but not least cars with malfunctioning breaks and aggrivating traffic tickets… does that to you. Anyway, here comes Kiri:

Pattern: Kiri (pdf) from All Tangled Up
Yarn: Something unknown and beautiful Corrina gave me a long time ago. About 400 yards. Possibly sock weight, maybe even lace weight.

The first picture doesn’t make justice to the beauty of this shawl. Not even close. The colors are accurate though. I love the second picture far more, and yes, the fact that I insisted on taking the pictures when I was home alone made the ass shot totally impossible. But yeah. Here you can see the lace and why this pattern is so amazing.

 And of course I had to do a close up too, even though it doesn’t really show anything different, except letting everyone know how irregular my yarnovers are… And also, for your information, after these pictures were taken i did buy a blocking board (also known as a six dollar camping mattress foam thing from Walmart) and reblocked it to get the points. It worked wonderful. Never again towel and 283403240 pins! And yes, foam board and exactly the same amount of pins is far better, thank you for asking.

My feet are fuzzy!

I still haven’t blocked Kiri. It’s mostly because all the sinks in the house and the bath tub too, are Aaron’s responsibility and they are just too gross to be allowed close to my beloved Kiri.

(You give him two jobs – to clean the bathroom once in a blue moon, mostly because I’m allergic to bleach, and Orange Clean just doesn’t cut it in there, and do the dishes. And neither gets done!)

So Kiri lays neglected. And I knit furiously and my “to be blocked” pile grows. Here’s some of it.

What? Comfy slippers for my grandpa.
Pattern: Fuzzy Feet from Knitty.
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Merino, olive green. Exactly one skein, which means 223 yards.

I made these for my grandfather. I love them so much that I’m definately making myself a pair. That is, some time when I’m not living in florida. My gauge was 3.5 stitches to an inch instead of 4, but since grandpa has big old feet I just went with it and hoped the extra half stitch per inch would be enough to make them his size. I’m not really sure if it worked. Time will tell I suppose. They’re too big for me, and my feet are big as boats. Especially if you put my men’s size 6’s next to Aaron’s little boys 4.5. Please pay no attention to my legs who are screaming for some lotion. And some sun. Simultaneously.

What? Crazylooking tam for Suz.
Pattern: None, really. Or perhaps my own.
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Merino, 223 yards of olive, tiny amounts of bone and paprika.

 

I freehanded this with double crochet. It is a tam; that is, a hat people with dreddies stuff them all into so they can look like they have a 48 inch head. It also doubles as a parachute. This is possibly the ugliest piece of clothing i’ve ever knitted (wait, it’s crocheted, strike that!) or worn. And that’s saying a lot. And yes, I had fun here and photoshopped myself a pair of brown eyes. I also had to stuff the tam full with plastic bags to make it look decent, even though it has all my hair in there too (and yes, it hits my waist on a good day).

I have knitted so much more… including a matching set consisting of a panta and armwarmers. with cables. I’m thinking about putting that pattern up for sale. Because I’m just that broke (see next post for explanation).

Knitting without tears

I have so much to update on, but no camera, so it will have to wait. So far I have knitted, but not documented:

- Kiri (pdf) (for all that’s holy and the rest too, it must be a crime to knit something this beautiful and not take pictures of it the second it dries. Oh yeah. I haven’t blocked it yet. That’s why I’m still alive. The Knitting Gods would’ve surely punished me if it was more than a big lump of wool.

- a panta (with my own tricky cable design. It took forever.)

- a tam (which is a tricky humongous hat that looks like an oversized old lady beret – Swedish word “basker” – that people with dreads stuff their hair into for some reason. It’s for a friend. I don’t do dreads. I’m way too perfectionistic (new word?) with my hair to go down that route.)

- Via Diagonale (only needs some minor finishing).

- Irish Coronet (needs ends weaved in and blocking).

- Irish Hiking Scarf (pdf) (only needs blocking).

- one pair of Fuzzy Feet (olive green!).

I don’t know. Is that it? Im just starting an entrelac bag that is eating all my free time. because I’ve probably started over 42 times by now.

What I was really gonna write though, was that I scored a copy of Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann from the library. It was an awesome book in many ways. Lots of techniques. Lots of neat stuff. Baked in there were a few, um, well, not so nice things. Not many, but they were there. Like, she stated that people who are lefthanded and knit “backwards”, that is, I assume, mirrored to the way a righthanded person would knit, is just crazy, because if they can operate a keyboard (ok, this was written in 1971, she said typewriter) or a car or I don’t remember the rest, there were a few examples, well, they should be able to knit like “a normal person”.

And that is just the kind of closemindedness that makes me go “Wow. I can’t believe she just said that”. But then again, this lady was oldish when she wrote the book (she mentioned having a “governess” which I think is a nanny, in 1920, so she had to be born around 1910-1915. And part of the story is that in Europe, or at least in Sweden, they did still teach lefthanded kids to write with their right hand (because to write with your left hand was “wrong”) when my mom was in elementary school. Which was in the early 60s.

But yeah. With a grain (not a pinch! i’m not cooking… yet.) of salt this is a really great book. Everybody should haunt it down at their local library.

PS. Holy shit. I just read over the list I wrote on the top and this means I’m finished and ready to send off my Christmas package. Almost. I just need to finish and felt some handles for my moms bag, but dad’s present is done, so is my sister’s and my grandparents. Only thing missing is my aunt’s. Last year I didn’t finish this until September!

It should be called PITA, not KIRI

So. I finished Kiri. And yes. I love the pattern. It’s genious. but right now I really think it’s short for pain in the ass. Or maybe it’s my perfectionism that is the pain in the ass? I don’t know. The whole knitting went fine. It was when it was time to bind off it started. Let me tell you how many times i tried to bind off:

1 – I did the k2tog bind off as the pattern says with US7’s (same as i knitted with), although it calls for US8’s for the bind off. I didn’t like the way it looked.

2 – I couldn’t find my US8’s, so I tried binding off with US9’s instead. I didn’t like the way it looked.

3 – I decided that maybe I was supposed to purl a row to finish of the yarn overs before casting off. So I purled 400 stitches. And then tried the k2tog bind off with us7’s. I didn’t like the way it looked.

4 – I tinked 400 stitches and tried my regular bind off, that is, knit two, slip one stitch over the other. I didn’t like the way it looked.

5 – I decided a garter stitch border would be in order. So I knit three rows garter stitch, and increased one stitch at the beginning and end of every other row to keep the pointy ends. Then i used my regular bind off. I didn’t like the way it looked.

6 – I knit another row. Tried my regular bind off. Guess what? I didn’t like the way it looked.

7 – I unraveled the bind off for the sixth time and tried the k2tog bind off hoping that the back of it would look like a garter stitch ridge.

Then I looked at it and realized how stupid it will look when the top of the shawl has vertical ridges, and the other two sides has horizontal. Thank God Aaron was there. He told me to get the hell over it and finish binding off. So I did.

And let me tell you; I have never ever in my life cared this much about a bound off edge before! Ever! The kicker is that it’s going to my grandmother, who I could give a skunk and she would say “Oh my, isn’t that lovely? I love the way it smells!”.

It’s not blocked yet, I don’t have a towel big enough and I’m probably gonna end up investing in one of those foam things they sell… you know, those that look like big puzzle pieces that you put together. Can’t afford a real blocking board. $10 for a box of foam puzzle is steep for me!

I will get back to you when that is done and the pictures are taken and developed and scanned. Sigh. I miss my digital camera.

Post Olympics post

No, I didn’t get gold. I didn’t even get silver. Which i’m not too surprised about. I have never been the one to shine, after all. I do however feel good about my knitting during the Olympics. I didn’t finish Kiri, but I still knitted more than I ever remember doing! In the car, in bed, by the TV, by the computer, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner – you name it. I even knitted while buying groceries.

The reason I didn’t finish Kiri is spelled real life. First Tonya’s baby shower came along and I quickly threw together a blanket for her. A simple, but pretty awesome blanket. And then there was the knitting of six out of eight repeats of Kiri. And then Aaron’s mom wanted a scarf to match her UNF watch cap. And instead of doing a boring 1×1 ribbed scarf like I first thought about I designed a cabled seed stitch thing. It’s looking pretty great, even if navy will never be my color of choice.

So yeah. I finished about 75% of Kiri, knitted a baby blanket and a cabled scarf in 16 days. Not too bad, even if it wasn’t what I meant to do. I really do belong in Team Rebel.

Kiri in progress

 

 

Corrina, thank you so much for giving me this yarn (and the lace bug)! The pictures are actually scans, because Lila (cat #5) decided that it would be fun to kick my camera off the table and watch it fall. She’s like a freaking toddler. Unfortunately I’m not like a freaking toddler parent, because then I would know better than to leave something that valuable within paws reach.