See! I didn't disappear!

Whew! That was a lot of posting... enjoy!

I'll try to get pictures up more regularly, but no promises.

Anyway, happy holiday knitting everyone!

Matching Caps

As you may recognize, these hats are the Newsboy-style Caps from S&B Nation.


I've made three of these in the past, and only heard positive reviews. They are pretty fast to knit & can be made with only 6oz of yarn. Also, they're pretty funky and cool and definitely not boring.


They look way different laying on the table than they do when they are actually being worn, so here are some lovely, slightly blurry, pictures of how they really look:



Hooray again! Feels good to finish projects!

Purple Alaska Sock up to HERE!

The purple Alaska socks are done! and they are definitely knee-high at least!

They are so comfy, it's gonna pain me to give them away for Xmas. My only consolation being that if anyone could love these socks more than I do, it's the person who's getting them for Xmas.


Hooray! If anyone wants to knit something happy, make knee high socks with really soft yarn. It was a blast & they make me smile when I see them. :)

Lover's Mitten

Sorry in advance for the poor quality of some of these pictures, but yeah, no natural light.


Here is a normal mitten:


Here is a Lover's Mitten:

Kinda like conjoined mitten twins. The point is that you can hold hands with someone inside the mitten & your hands won't get cold. I made a few changes to the Lover's Mitten pattern in the link above, but mostly just for sizing.

And I made a matching set of mittens, so the lovebirds can keep their outside hands warm as well.


A Lover's Mitten...what a cute idea! It's been a big hit with everyone who's seen it. It seems to be what everyone wants for Xmas.

Asherton at Last!

Voila!

I know it's not a super picture, but it seems like it's dark all the time, so no luck having natural light. Anyway, you can see what it looks like. Very geometric pattern. Almost appears to be 3-D cubes.

And since it's made with only knits and purls, it looks much more challenging than it was. Though, the 44-row repeat in the pattern definitely made me pay attention.

The Deluge Begins...

Ok, I've finally done it! I took pictures of the things I've finished in the past couple months & I will now post them.

I've been such a blog slacker....


And on that note, I present the Ribbon Hat:

The black is a microspun cotton blend that's been sitting in my closet for ages, and the green is ribbon yarn that I think I bought at my first trip to a real yarn store. ...long time ago. Anyway, that was back when I thought it'd be really fun to knit with ribbon yarn. Silly me.

But, two bits of my stash were eaten up by this project. So, huzzah! It's really nothing too amazing, but it is pretty soft, so that's good.

knitting goddess

hey, check it out -

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Goddess. You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with reward, you simply want others to love knitting as much as you do. If someone wants to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there for them. If someone wants to learn short row shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in knitting, only opportunities to grow. Everyone should have friend like you around if they want to learn to knit, and there's a good chance that your passion has rubbed off on a few others.http://marniemaclean.com Take this quiz!

another silly quiz result -- but this time it's about knitting! Hooray!

so, I don't agree with your choice of FunFur, but I will fight to the death for your right to knit with it.

I've also been called an knitting evangelical...as pretty much every one of my family and friends have been or will be (strongly) encouraged to learn to knit...as it is clearly the best hobby in the world.

For real this time, I promise that I'll put new pictures up. You'll all be impressed with the progress I've made. The Xmas stash is really growing, but I think I'll still have to be up burning the midnight oil to get everything done in time. Who knew, August wasn't early enough to start for Xmas...one of these days I suppose I'll get sick of knitting, but until then I'll squeeze it into every spare 5 minutes of my busy life.

Nerd Alert!

You all know that I'm a knitting nerd and a science nerd, but apparently that nerdiness extends even further....

I am officially a Slightly Dorky Nerd Queen!






... so I'm feeling pretty good! I challenge any of you to out-nerd me!

I know, I know...

I have been a total slacker!! I admit it! But I have an excuse (or two or three).... also, even though I haven't been posting for over a month, I have still been knitting & there has been progress! Though not as much as you might expect.

I finished the Purple Alaska Socks, I made a rough draft Lover's Mitten (will explain this later), then made regular mittens and a lover's mitten for someone's Xmas present, started new socks, and I'm halfway done with another Coronet hat.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. It's not like I can just go take a walk around my apartment and look, because now I'm employed (woo!). And that's pretty much my excuse for the lack of blog progress.

Well, that and going out with friends in the evening... And having a computer from the stone age so it's like a 3 hour commitment to upload pictures. But I promise to post pictures soon. Really. Cross my heart.

but until then, be patient

Asherton

I have not been able to get a good photo of the completed Asherton Scarf. As soon I as I can come up with some way to do that, you'll see how awesome it looks. Until then, take my word for it...it's done. Promise.

Surprise!

Haha! Oh yeah, I made another one of these a few weeks ago. They just kept appearing all over my apartment....no real recollection of making it, it just blends in with all the other similar ones.

Anyway, I recommend this pattern. It looks way more complicated than it is, and seriously, isn't that what all knitters really want?

My New Bag!

I'm so excited about finishing this bag. First of all, I only started it a couple days ago, so that's exciting in itself. But also, my primary bag, which I use to carry around my wallet, phone, keys, etc, has had a broken zipper since about 14 minutes after I bought it at an NYC flea market.


I sewed a new zipper in this one, so if it breaks....well, I guess I can always fix it.



So yeah, a new bag is good news.

The pattern I used was Brea from Berroco Yarn's Free Patterns. I decided to do a knit handle instead of buying a leather one, and I used rings from an old belt to attach the handle to the bag.

Again, I've been so good as to knit from my stash, using leftover afghan yarn for this project.

To add a little spice to this neutral colored bag, I lined it with a crazy print fabric.

Here's a photo using the flash that really shows how bright the inside is:



It's CRAZY! Crazy-awesome, that is. Anyway, I love it. It's the perfect size for all the essentials and it's super cool because I made it and it's not about to fall apart. (woo!) And a few hours later, the zipper still works.

For another instance of this cool pattern, check out Kaydo's!

Reversible Cables

Not much to see yet, but a reversible cable scarf is always newsworthy. This is my new project for working on when I need something mindless to do. The pattern is very simple, but the end result will be fabulous! And it's alpaca, so it's super soft.

As always, it'll take forever because it's a scarf, so anytime I feel like I've made any sort of progress, you will probably see a picture of it... because that's how I operate.

Socks up to HERE!

Voila!



I have created another knee-length purple alaska sock! I want to work some elastic into the cuffs of these socks to keep them from sagging, and I just haven't been to the store yet. As soon as I get my hands on some thin elastic-type thread, they will be finished in a snap!

Preview

Despite the lack of progress on the blog, there has been much knitting progress in the last few weeks.

Here's the rundown:

-finished the Asherton Scarf
-almost finished both knee-length Purple Alaska Socks
-started and have almost finished a new bag
-progressed slightly on the Rainbow Railway Socks
-started a reversible cabled scarf with blue alpaca yarn

Pictures will be forthcoming, I promise. I just really want to finish lining this bag first, and we all know how slow I am at sewing.

PS: I have a question. I 'sewer' the proper word to use when describing 'one who sews', because to me, sewer is where the teenage mutant ninja turtles live, etc...

Hat Factory

After pawing around in my stash some more, I was inspired to knit up a couple more Coronets in the past couple days. Yeah, 2 hats in like a day and a half. First it's clear that (if only for the moment) I have no life.

Also, I think my knitting has sped up. I don't know why or how, but I'm pretty sure it's faster now. Cool, but I hope I don't knit myself into early knitting retirement.


Anyway, the hats are called Little Thing 1 and Little Thing 2...a la Dr Seuss... And they were knit entirely from stash yarn. I think they are fun little hats and they're really comfy. Too bad it's 80ish degrees outside. Alas...


Oh what will my stash think of next?? ...we shall seeeeeee...

Another one bites the dust...

All done and shipped out. Sorry I didn't include a picture of the entire scarf stretched out, but you've all seen the pattern from every conceivable angle...because I posted a picture every time I needed to feel like I was making progress on this project.

Overall, I enjoyed making it. The pattern was challenging and the chart was always necessary, but after a while it was easy enough to knit while watching TV. Not mindless, but it didn't require lots of thought.

I hope he likes it...I'll let you know!

See!

See! I told you it fits over my leg. No worries! I think I'm gonna go get elastic string and carry that along as I knit the last few inches...just to try and make them less saggy... no one likes saggy socks.

Balloon Scarf 7.0

Picked up this project again and have been working on it with renewed energy. The chart requires my constant attention.

I've moved on to the second skein of yarn (again another project with a slight color difference between skeins, what a pain, but at least this one is less noticeable than in the afghan) and I've finished 7 repeats of the pattern and I'm still going strong.

Hopefully I'll be able to get this one off the needles before long.

Rainbow Railway Socks

Turns out that working with yarn that has unpredictable color changes can be fun! It's looking good so far, and it fits pretty nicely.


The textured pattern is the Railway Stitch from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

Also, I love toe-up construction. The worst part of making socks before was trying to guess the max height that wouldn't make me run out of yarn by I got around to the toe.

I haven't started the second sock yet, but progress will be made...

Arm Socks in Record Time!

Oh yeah!!! The arm socks are done! And they turned out exactly as intended. They can be worn with the finger part extended:


or folded over for more dexterity:

Nifty. Anyway, let me note that these were knit on size TWO needles. Each arm sock is about 16 inches long...and since I made them in under two days, it really was record time.

Woohoo!

It's growing!

The purple Alaska socks are growing!!

This picture makes the leg bit look extremely narrow, but I assure you, it fits my monster-calf comfortably. And the yarn is so lusciously soft. It's awesome! ...if I do say so myself.

More Alaska Socks!

If you recall, I came back from Alaska with some beautiful hand-dyed yarn and have only made the one pair of socks...

Well, now there has been more progress with the Alaska Yarn!


This sock is knit in the same pattern as the blue and white Alaska Socks, the only difference being a slightly longer foot. Oh, and these are gonna be knee-high. WOOHOO! Knee-high socks that'll actually fit over a normal-sized calf.

Note to the readers: before I started blogging, I made one knee-high sock that probably wouldn't even fit on my arm. it was out of really itchy wool too. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. I guess my excuse it that it was summer and I didn't feel like knitting anything useful, so I was just messing around.

Back to the awesome socks: I'm super excited about them. They are knit on 6s so it should be pretty speedy! hooray!

Arm Socks

In other news, I'm making some arm socks. These differ from handwarmers only because they extend much further up the arm. Totally simple pattern, which is good for when I feel like zoning out and knitting. I got this yarn for my birthday and it looks way cooler when knit than in the skein (surprise surprise, right?) yeah, well, it's awesome and I'm sure the recipient will like them come Xmas time

UFO Sighting

UFO as in alien spacecraft...Unfinished Object UFOs are no stranger to me.

My first foray into illusion knitting is so far a success! I'm making the Alien Scarf from Stitch and Bitch and it's turning out great!

From straight on it looks like green and black stripes:



But when you look at it from a more horizontal angle, the aliens appear:


Pretty nifty, eh?

Yes, this is going into the Xmas stash, but I'm not saying who it's for. After Xmas I'll be sure to make a nice little list of who got what, but until then, it'll have to be a mystery.

Speaking of stash-ness: so I had to buy yarn to make this scarf, but I plan to keep making aliens until the skeins are gone...therefore not adding to the stash...that's allowed I think.

X-mas Stash

A note to my friends and family:

After finishing that afghan, I've decided to start building up the stash of knitted Christmas presents....in an attempt to have them all finished on time. Therefore, most of the time I won't be saying who the recipients of these gifts will be....ya know, because there are too many of you that I knit for who read this blog...and/or have big blabbermouths...

So just know that any of these strange items could end up under your Xmas tree...

Attack of the Brain Slug

A la Futurama, I present this brain slug:



Isn't he pretty? I made a few alteration to the original pattern. Mainly the bobbles on the antennae and the way the headband is attached to the base.

Anyway, here's the bottom of him where the headband is fastened:



As I was trying to take his picture, he escaped...


...into the freezer,


onto the bikes...


and into the stash...



And then he got Christian..... duh duh duuuuuhhhh....


no more brains for Christian.... awwww.


At least the brain slug didn't starve to death!

Yet another hat

Another quick to knit hat from knitty... this one is Coronet. The band is knit on straights and then grafted together, and then you pick up stitches in the round and finish it in plain stockinette with the simplest of decreases for the top.

Despite the simplicity of the patterns, it makes a very nice looking hat....and it even fits my head! Hooray!


This one was also entirely from stash-tastic yarn! Hooray!

Final Pictures

Ta-da!




Washing it didn't really fix the color problem, but it did help the pattern open up and made the afghan feel more like fabric and it seemed to get bigger...it covered my whole queen bed.


Anyway, I mailed it off today, so I'll keep you all posted as to how the parents like it!