5.20.2008

It is sooooo cold in the office today! I'm wearing my Dashing mittens, and for one they match my outfit since I'm wearing a green shirt today :D But even the mitts and a lot of hot tea are only helping so much. I can't wait to go home!!

OtN: I did a major clean this weekend, and found some old yarn I'd bought at KnitNY back in 2004 or so. It's actually the reason I stopped going there: I bought some 100% wool Lopi thinking to make a shawl, and nobody thought to warn me that it would be really warm and bulky. There are just so many LYS with friendly staff that do take an interest in what you're knitting and offer free advice, that I just prefer to give them my business instead. It happened twice actually, and I also had the strong impression that the staff didn't know their stuff, so I started going to Yarn Connection on 36th street and I love them. They're just more my style.

Anyway, I found the offending Reynold's Lopi, a lovely, feltable, bulky-weight wool that just strikes me as super scratchy to knit with. I have 3 skeins of pink, 2 of one purple and 1 of a brighter purple. I'm not sure if I'll make another Little Slip of a Thing, those boxes are SO annoying. It might turn out more like a Coco bag. Either way it should be a quick-to-knit, fun purse slash knitting project bag. And felted - hehehe I loove felting these days.

5.16.2008

knit picks, ravelry love and bag design

My Knitpicks order came in Tuesday! Squee!! So now I have all the yarn I need to finish my Princess Mitts and Ravenclaw socks. Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

I actually worked on the Ravenclaw socks a little this week, finished the cuff and got to the part where I need to actually use both colors in the same row. I've only done one other project like that - the bag I knit for HSKS4. It came out good, but I had to be really careful about holding the yarns loosely, and it didn't look perfect to me until it was felted. I'm not felting these socks. We'll see how crazy I get trying to make it perfect.

Some of my Knit Picks order was new needles. I don't have a lot of sock needles, so I ordered the set of sock-sized Harmony DPNs. The metal DPNs I got from Joann's tend to slide around and I'm really paranoid about losing them. I also got some 0 and 1.5 circular needles to try the 2-socks-on-2-circs method with fingering weight yarn. The Susan Bates size 2's were a bad call - the cord is too stiff. Anyway, I was really excited to try out the toe-up pattern that Enid/Jessica sent me for HSKS4... but one of the needles is really sticky. Wtf?!? I tried handsoap with no luck, now I gotta scan the Rav boards and see if other people had this problem - and how to fix it.

I also got some lace yarn in - Shadow. The price is right ($2.50 a skein) and I'd like to wear shawls on shabbat, I think they'd look great with some of my skirts. On Ravelry you can browse what projects people have made with each yarn, and I found a really nice looking Laminaria shawl, so I clicked through. Imagine my surprise when I saw the knitter who made it is Akabori. I met Diane at the end of April in School Products in NYC. A couple of patrons in the store were speaking French, so of course I started talking to them right? The convo switched to English because I wasn't 100% sure how to say "Most awesome, incredible, amazing website ever" in French ;) and Diane overheard me gushing about Ravelry... so now I have a new Ravelry friend that I also know IRL. :-D

/*There's mold growing on the inside of my water bottle. Eeeeeew! Ok back to the regularly scheduled blog post*/

So this week besides knitting the Ravenclaw sock sloooowly, I also finished the base of my 3rd attempt for the HSKS bag design challenge. It's going to be felted - shocker right? I really need to let go of the felting and MOVE ON. Sigh. Maybe next week :D

5.07.2008

finished!


Ravenclaw Boot Socks
Originally uploaded by k1ms
Check it out - I finished my Ravenclaw Boot Socks! It only took me like a week to knit them, but they're in worsted weight Swish so that's nothing to brag about. I wore them already - soooo comfy! Almost makes me want to start the second start of the first sock I made. Hmm, maybe not.

I finished my train project last night! Let me tell ya, 2-color kniting on dpns is a little bit tricksy to manage on a train. There was no cursing involved though which was a good thing - when I turned around to stretch I noticed a guy in the row behind me watching me knit. We all know it's much more impressive to watch when the knitter isn't muttering under her breath ;)

Anyway, this is my Lavender Berry Hat:
2008-05-07 003

I started some Dashing Mitts on the needles I was using for the Ravenclaw Socks. Work is cold in the summer with all that AC, so it'll be nice to have "sleeves". Speaking of work, Kim showed me the baby afghan she wants us to crochet for the twins. She's going to do one, and I'll be doing the other. The good news is that she said she's getting the yarn - not necessary since I volunteered to make the 'ghan, but definitely appreciated. Especially if she wants more than Caron Baby Soft - my go-to baby 'ghan yarn since it's so soft and washable. The bad news is that she picked the pattern and it 8 gazillion little motifs to sew together. Okay maybe just 81 motifs, but I. Hate. Sewing. And finishing. Le sigh.

5.01.2008

new socks and other things

Jessica sent me some very nice Knit Picks yarn and needles through the HSKS4 sock kit swap. I'm still not sure how she knew about my current Knit Picks obsession, or that I was seriously eyeing the Knit Picks Interchangeable needles. I don't think I blogged about them. But she figured me out, and I'm really loving the sock kit she sent me. I only held out 2 days before casting on my Ravenclaw Boot Socks. They are being knitted 2 at a time on 2 circular needles, so I'm almost done with the whole thing! I have a ridiculously awful case of SSS (=second sock syndrome), so the 2-at-a-time thing is pretty amazing. Plus, the yarn is Knit Picks Swish Superwash, a worsted weight, so they are going very fast besides. I need about 2 hours of knitting time at home to finish these socks - and I haven't found them yet. Must. Chat. Less!

My current train project is a baby hat, the same style as the hat I knit for Sarah but different yarn. There's pros and cons to this new yarn but the main con is lack of elasticity, and I'm not sure how the 2-color colorwork is going to work out. Hopefully it'll sort itself out on the way home tonight, which is when I start the color changes.

Coming up on the hook: a baby afghan for the other Kim at work. She's having twins (!!). She told us yesterday that she was only crocheting 1 blanket and her mom wasn't going to do any. Really how can you have 1 blanket for two babies?!? When they reach toddlerhood and carry their blankie, are they each supposted to lug around only a half a blankie? So I volunteered :D I've since reached out to the other knitters and crocheters at work, so maybe we'll all do squares or strips and make a collaborative afghan for Kim. Brian (Sarah's dad) already volunteered to help. He's pretty awesome regardless, but that makes him even awesomer in my book!

More on the 'ghan next week when things get started...