Texture?

Ok, I finished the textured tunic a while ago and still can't decide if I like the color. I was very proud of my self with the sleeves. I finished one of them completely and cast off and that is when I stoped deluding myself that I liked how it looked.

I didn't read the instructions until after I had knit the whole textured section only to realise that I should have been decreasing. Well I just decreased after like in the body and thought for some reason it would be ok. Also for the 'bell' part at the end I followed the patter and just don't like it at all. It took all my strength to rip it all back and admit that I had waisted the past 4 hours of knitting.

I have officially worn the sweater twice, once to a 5K that my husband ran in and once to work. I love the eye-hole in theory and when my bra strap isn't showing. I'm thinking about sewing it shut since my bra straps rarely stay where they should, I have slopey shoulders.

I really like the buttons and button tabs the way I made them. No key-hole down there and if I where to make one small change it would be to knit one round even and separate and not start increasing on that first round (ie separate the round before I did).

This being the first wool sweater I have finished I am very scared to wash it. Also, blocking question, what is the point of blocking? Wouldn't you have to do it again every time you wash the thing?

I will make this dress one day or my name isn't...

Ok it's not a very good picture of it, I saw it in a catalog before and they have a shorter version that is a sweater but I love the dress. (from Victoria secret by the way and it is very creatively called cable dress) I would consider just buying it for the low low price of $69 which is probably how much I would spend on it if I used wool but I'm not a yarn snob so acrylic yarn here I come.

Lets Add a Little Texture

The first pair of socks are done. I tried wearing them last Friday (finished last Thursday) but they hurt like mad when I put my feet in my shoes. I got as far as the train station and had to take them off. I washed them thinking that this would help. Well, they took over 2 hours to dry in the dryer!!! I hand washed them since I was afraid the dye would still come off (it did but don't know if there was enough to dye my clothes pink) and threw them in the dryer by them selves for about 1/2 hour while washing machine finished. Then add the load in with then, another hour and 1/4. The load of laundry dried completely, took it out and left the socks in there with the jeans and turned the heat up. They still did not dry in the last 1/2 so I had them air dry in the car. I really wanted to show them off. Well they felt much better but I really should take off a few stitches to wear with shoes. (yes, yes, I know that lama told me to reduce at least another 4 stitches but I just didn't listen) But after that drying escapade I just don't know if I will knit any more socks out of my cotton yarn.

On to my next project. I am just as unsure about the success of this one. I started on the Textured Tunic from Fitted Knits (the sweater pictured on the cover). I used the clearance yarn I got from JoAnns and now know why it was on clearance. The different colors look so nice in the skein but not so nice all knit up. When I first tried the sweater on with the front all finished, my hubby exclaimed that he would never be seen in public with me wearing it. That might be a bit rash on the colors, they aren't that bad. But they aren't perfect. Here it is with the front and back all finished.

Colors aside there were a many things not to like about this pattern. Do a quick search on Raverly, I'm not the only one with these complaints, but there are some things I love about the pattern that many people complained about.

1) the key hole at the neck line. I love it. This detail is why I wanted to knit the thing in the first place. True it does present a problem with the bra strap but I always have that problem (I have sloped shoulders so shirt and bra strap are always sliding off anyway)

2) cast on neck line rolls. I love it. Look at the pic in the book, I'm pretty sure it is mean to roll. I think the look is very cute and goes right along with the key hole.

3) not a fitted pattern. I made adjustments. This is the most disappointing thing about this pattern. Looking at the pics it looks VERY fitted but looking at the schematic it shows there is none. I reduced 16 stitches right after the textured section (k2tog sm ssk) at each end every other row 4 times. Then I increased 12 stitches back in the side slit set up rows using kfb and disguised it as a k1 p1 in the moss paneling.

4) the button tabs. I love/hate it. As written the button tabs would have created a key hole and I did not like that, so thanks to Raverly I was able to make a few adjustments with out froging that much. What I did was to knit 5 rounds after the side slit set up with out separating. Then when I did separate on round/row 6 I increased 1 stitch each end for the next 8 rows instead of the cast on 5 stitches each side in row 12. Then followed the rest of the pattern as is. I really liked how the buttons rested on the front hip bone and did not want them on the side of the hip so liked the idea of the tabs to wrap around. Just not the idea of having a big hole right on my love handles.

I'm still not to sure about the color, think it would work better with lots of cabling. I'm going to go ahead and finish the sleeves and wear it to work and then decide if the whole thing will be froged or not. (Let me know if you have an opinion on the color)

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

My family is a big Italian family (ok so not at all, we are big on being part Italian but small in numbers, my great grandfather was all Italian but this is all I have in me) We used to have a yearly ravioli party. We would make enough to cover a queen sized bed, they eat ourselves silly. We haven't done this family tradition in quite a while (family drama) but this year it has come back. We didn't quite cover a queen sized bed, only 3 cookie sheets, but it was scrumptious.

Also, this year I was old enough to help make the ravioli, not just crimp the edges with a fork. It is actually pretty easy to make the ravioli dough (but then I think making bread is pretty easy now so...) The recipe is also simple enough to memorise it from just one go around:

4 cups shifted flour

2 tsp salt

2 tbl oil

1 egg

1 cup warm water

put flour and salt in bowl and stir. create a dip in the middle (shove it all to the sides) and add egg, oil and water and slowly incorporate in flour. Once incorporated, kneed for 10 min, adding flour as necessary. Cover and let rest for 30 min. Role out, cut, stuff, fold over, crimp with fork.

Let rest for 10 to 20 min in fridge or for the time it takes to boil the water, boil in water until done. A good indication of when they are almost done is once they start floating to the top.

Voila!! That's-a-good-a-meat-a-ball.

The view from my grandma's backyard is also great!!

My Kind of Town Chicago Is

Yes, I am in downtown Chicago every day of the week for work and school but don't normally go in on the weekends. This weekend me and the hubby took a trip down to see the Art Institute and the architecture. When we got there is wasn't open yet so we stood outside long enough for me to find this:

Can't quite see why this no parking sign is interesting? Lets take a closer look:

Talk about knitting upholstery, some one made a sock for this sign post. True I'm pretty sure it is crochet and not knit but still, quite impressive. Whoever made this must have made it right on the pole, maybe everyday while waiting for the light (quite along light since it is Michigan Ave) they chained on a new row? (or whatever the correct crocheting term for another row is)

Found this inside the Art Institute, it used to be a panel under a stair railing,

This would make a very nice stitch pattern. I'm now going to try to invent such a thing. Cables and yarn overs all in one, this will make a very nice pot holder.

Also, can you say Native American quilt?
The repetition of basically the same design reminded me of exactly a quilt. This is painted on a animal skin but still looks of the thing. The sign on the wall says that it was actually a partition to separate off a holy room for the chief or something like that. I didn't read that far in because me and hubby started arguing about whether it was outside-inside wall or inside-inside wall. The sign clearly said inside-inside (without using those exact words but the point was pretty clear) but sometimes men just don't listen.

After the Art Institute we stepped right into the 1950's. This is Patty Burger just a half block down Adams. It has a very small street front but the colors were just to much to pass up. I didn't actually now the decade we were traveling to but my mom-in-law confirmed the date. Very good food.

I Met A Celebrity

Yesterday I went to YarnCon with the local snb group. I hadn't planed on going until I discovered that Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting were going to be there (I would use exclamation points here but to convey my excitement would use to many, lets just say it would be similar to the excitement of winning on a game show ) I met Ann and she signed my book, and I have proof. (Kay wasn't actually there so I couldn't show her my applied i-cord potholder)

Now I will take a minuet to explain why I am quite so crazy about the Mason-Dixon Knitting Gals. Their book was the first to show me the vast on-line knitting group and I will always be extremely grateful. I am now officially obsessed with knitting and now know that I am not alone. I had been knitting for a little over 5 years before I read their book but it was never obsession (my friends will tell you otherwise but I never really went over the deep end until I read there book) Their writing style was just so different from the other pattern books, IE it had a writing style. They talked about knitting the way I had always thought about it, but never had anyone to talk about it with that didn't look at me like I was mad. Now, I have never actually knitted anything from their book... but just love the way they talk about knitting. I fully intend to eventually knit the after dark nightie and tailgate rad rug (I actually have yarn for this one) and a log cabin blanket and many more from their new book (once I finish reading it).

There was a knitting group that had a great idea, they destashed their yarn and sold it in surprise bags for $5. I really wanted to get one just cuz it was a great idea. They also had the crazy cool row counter that was a bracelet.

I found another new plant fiber to knit with. This time it is banana (ok to the dried trunk of a banana tree) and silk. I got five hanks of the plum/brown (bottom right) from BodhiYarn. I now have to come up with what to knit with this find. I have about 750 yards and am thinking a 3/4 length sleeve shirt (if possible) sleeves to shorten if needed (here I go again)

I'm Dyeing to Knit

I had a very slow day at work a few weeks ago and this is what I found. How to dye.

A while back I had bought a 5.5 lb cone of cotton yarn that I intended for my Ikea Tube Chair Slip-Cover. Well the 5.5 lb cone of yarn turned out to be a sport weight, not exactly something to knit a slip-cover with. I'm eventualy going to buy Peaches & Creme double worsted weight but need 7 lb to finish (didn't take into consideration that cotton is heaver then wool when buying only 5.5 lb) Since I'm chaning to cotton it will be less exspensive than wool but the very idea of buying 7 lbs to knit right now is crazy. I need to destash and bit and finish school before I start on this indever.

So the question arouse, what to do with the 5.5 lb cone of cotton that I have? I got it in a cream color, originaly with the idea that I could dye it to whatever color I wanted the chair cover to be. So I thought why not go ahead and still dye it. I had always wanted to try the kool-aid dyeing. I did a little research and found that kool-aid will not dye cotton (a very sad day). But did find that tye-dye will work. My little cousin originaly gave me the idea at once of our family parties but I didn't remember the conversation untill I had done my research.

Now that I was for sure going to use tye-dye the question was what for? Since I had just made my first sock (even if it was on size 6 needles) I wanted to make another. Plus then I could use the self striping tutorial I found. Plus this yarn was the perfect weight for my first real socks. (I got the 5.5 lb cone on ebay from Frank's, and he has alot more bulk cotton in off white colors if you would like to give it a try). From the book I got at the library I determined that most socks used 400 yds so I wound off 6 400 yd hanks. The first hank was around two chairs 20' apart, the next 10' apart then three 5' apart that the last one with the chairs right next to each other (about 3' apart). From my calculations the 20' would make about 6 row strips with 3 diffrent colors.

I did not think to take picks of the whole dying procces but I basicaly followed the tutorials I found online. What I did discover is

1) Do not use the gloves they give you in the tye-dying kit. I got a hole in mine and half my hand was completly blue. Thankfuly durrng my reasrech I found a comment to use baking soda to get dye off your hands, and it worked but I still had to wash them about 5 times.

2) definatly do it on wet yarn, the only way to get a even color is to 'kneed' the dye in, or else you will by using way to much dye. I had the kind with a squirt bottle instead of puting it in bowles, that might work out diffrent. But then all that kneeding is probably what put the hole in my glove.

3) one kit with 3 dyes is enough for 3 1/2 400 yd hanks. The 20' and 10' hanks i did as the self striping and a 5' hank I did all crazy like, to use up most of the dye and only had blue left (by far the strongest dye in the kit I got)

4) if you let the dye set for 3 days all wraped up it will STINK when you take it out. After rinsing out the exsess dye, wash it with soap. Twice if need be.

I have now finished my first real sock (with a proper guesset) however I thougth this was fingerling yarn, and it most definatly is not. I used 60 stiches for this sock, and I really need to use at least 12 less stiches. So I have now declared it sport weight yarn and have cast on 48 stiches for the next sock. Also, now that I'm doing all this winding of hanks into balls and do not yet have a ball winder I found this really great tutorial on how to hand wind center pull balls.

Hot Pads Galore

For next Christmas I wanted to make all of my aunts and uncles a set of pot-holder or hot pads/trivets. Normally I make everyone caramel corn but that gets crazy around the holidays so I was going to take a year off and make something knitty. I started with a book my grandma bought me. It is called Fun to Knit Washcloths & Pot Holders published by House of White Birches. I made about 13 of these pot holders before I quit for the summer to knit all the baby things.

My one complaint about these patterns is that it involves sewing the two sides together. I hate finishing (as I'm not all that good at it) so I avoid it when ever possible. I was reading Kay's ramblings on about i-cord when I had a brilliant idea. Don't knit the two sides together, join them by i-cord. I was very new to the idea of applied i-cord so I e-mailed Kay and asked for her opinion. She informed me to pick the stitch up through both sides and do it the regular applied i-cord way. It worked, not exactly faster then sewing, though I am getting faster at it after finishing three pot holders this way, but much more fun.

The cool thing about doing them this way is that you can basically pick any stitch pattern you want to try out and make a swatch, then a matching size swatch in stocking and i-cord them together. Easy as pie and you made your own pattern.

Before I actually figured out how to applied i-cord I did a search on ravelry and found some shadow knitting pot holders. I will be honest, I got the book from the library, and I'm glad because there was only one very basic shadow knitting pot holder (the one on the bottom right of my pic) On ravelry there where 3 or 4 different designs and just assumed they all were from the book, but no. They did the same thing I did, pick apart the different shadow knitting ideas from the other patterns and put them on the pot holder. The great thing about these guys is no sewing or i-cord. I used size 4 needles with the same yarn (sugars n cream for all of them) They are not a thick still but are easily folded over. I might just make my goal for Christmas but will have a hard time deciding who gets what.

Now you see them...

Now you don't.

Warn and Fuzzy Feeling

I am here to tell one and all of the best warm and fuzzy to give. It is called thrum!!!

I went to Stitches Midwest several weeks ago and discovered this. I almost bought a kit but didn't. (please don't judge me to harshly, I'm a kid trying to put herself and husband though college and knitting is a gosh darn expensive habit) My mom graciously tagged along with me to stitches and had mentioned on the way home that she would really like a pair of thrummed slippers. Well that lead me to do a search on thrums in raverly and there was a million free patterns!!! I found one for socks, altered it a bit to make slippers, a tutorial to make thrums, and got some roving on ebay and wool from the stash and voila, thrummed slippers for a grand total of $7. (quite similar to the mark down of text books by buying them online as apposed to in the book store)

My mom assumed they would be to warm to wear until the winter. But when she tried them on was surprised to find that they are not much warmer than regular socks. It has yet to get really cold out so we don't know if they will be warmer when it is colder out. Might turn out to be a all year round slippers. The big plus about these guys is they are so fuzzy soft on the inside. Slowly with use I'm told they will felt down but the picture above had been used several times already.

These were a quick knit, only taking two weeks. I used the two balls of clearance wool from Joann's (7 oz and had just enough for 6 tiny hats left) that I picked up after the fiber festival and get 4 oz of smoky roving and used about 1/2 of it. The adjustments I made to the pattern were:

1) I knit the ribbing back and fourth and did a plain rib instead of twisted rib

2) I held two strands together and used size 6 needles

3) I adjusted down to 40 stitches (I think but for the life of me can't find my print out to confirm exactly how many stitches I used)

4) I did the gusset wrong (this is not a suggested adjustment but one that I made) I had never knit socks before and didn't really know what to turn a heel or knit a gusset so I did my best to understand the pattern but didn't get it right (or i did and the pattern was written wrong but anyway) My gusset decreasing starts at the heel and works it way up, oops.

5) I thrummed in the heel

Guess who I meet yesterday!!!

I'm not going to tell you just yet. I have been up to a lot of stuff this past month and don't want things to be out of order or fall through the cracks. School started and I started watching west-wing again. And I'm talking all 7 seasons of west wing. I'm on season 5; starting with season 6 to the end and back to 1, so basically I'm almost done with my mad marathon. My husband can't wait. But needles to say that had is where I have been.





Ok, first project: A bag of bags.





My husband named it. He thought this project was completely ridiculous and would make fun of me by calling it a bag of bags, but I kind of like the name. This is actually my second target bag bag, the first one was done last April and was nowhere near as nice. It is a free pattern found here and the tutorial to make the target bag yarn is here. I'm sure you could do this with any plastic bag since she doesn't specify to use target bags but there are a few things that set target bags apart from all other plastic bags:


1) they are bigger than the average bag



2) they are thicker than the average bag



3) they have more color than the average bag (of course more second color, those all yellow or blue bags have more 'color' but not printed color)

All in all, target bags are the best; unless you go the route of Erica Knight's plarn where she used the heavy duty bags like from old navy. Where they are much bigger and thicker and more colorful. However, finding these kind of bags was more difficult for me (in this quantity) and plus I found cocoknits.com first.

My one warning to making this bag of bags is BUY A THIMBLE FIRST. If you don't like knitting with anything other than wool because of its elasticity, do not attempt this project. The plastic bags are very in elastic and you have to push the needle though while knitting. I honestly did not notice it in my first bag but then that one was much smaller. Only about 4" wide, 8" long and 12" tall. This second bag was 8" wide, 12" long and 13" tall. My finger hurt while knitting this. It was for my mom's birthday (and I was already late) so I toughed it out, but will definitely get a thimble before making another one.



Also, using a liner is necessary (unfortunately) The first bag I made needed to be finished that night and I didn't have any red fabric so I didn't put in a liner but the bachelor buttons came right though the 'fabric'. What I ended up doing was tying them in with more plarn but I have no idea how well they stayed in once the bag had stuff in it. Now that I think about it I really should call my friend and have her give it back to me to finish it. (I have no pic of the first bad)

A few food things

I have been reading this cookbook recently. It is great. All of the recipes I made tasted great(except the mac-n-cheese; i couldn't find frozen winter squash so I made my own squash but did not pick out a winter squash,. i picked out spaghetti squash and it turned out very very badly, in fact I'm getting a little nauseous just thing about it)

This isn't actually a recipe in the book but something she talks about. Instead of putting butter, peanut butter, or cream cheese on these bagels (all of which are not so great for you) I spread on half an avocado (as you might have guessed from the green). It was very good.

These crazy things were from a bread book I got from the library, unfortunately I returned but i think it was this book. I also cooked these biscuits a bit to long so they didn't taste all that good either, very sad after spending upwords of 8 hours on them. If I had only taken them out when I looked at the timer and saw 3 min left. Also, the small ball on top, I have a feeling that I made it to big, that the bottom ball was supposed to be bigger and then they could have cooked that 3 min longer without burning.

Ran out of Yarn, but never fear

I knitted until the yarn ran out and then knitted some more. I was not able to finish the laguna blouse. The sleeves where just to much for my limited about of yarn. I knew this from the get go but thought I could figure out a way to make it work. Fortunately I did not have to rip out the whole thing to get something wearable. I turned it into a tank top, a no sew tank top, that I am quite proud of.

I didn't want to bother to try and find a pattern that could work with the 203 stitches that I already had 13" knitted in the round (yes it was supposes to be 204 and can't find where I dropped a stitch so I think I must have not cast on the right number) So I made my own pattern. It worked quite well, I measured a tank top that fits me, did the math and then re-knitted the sleeves (or straps as they now are). I really love the clever way I came up with casting off to not get that staggered edge line along the neck. I didn't do the picking up stitches thing to knit a neck band either.


I am contemplating adding the neck band since I do have some yarn left over and the straps are starting to curl. Since it has a low back and front the neck band might need more yarn than I have left, even for one or two rows. I just don't like picking up stiches since I'm not all that good at it.

The yarn did wash up quite nicely. The hubby did the laundry and did not do anything special and it came out unharmed (good thing for him or he might have been harmed). He didn't even think about doing something different until he saw me try it on right away while folding the laundry.

I got an earfull

Here is how far I have gotten with my corn yarn. I picked out a pattern that I'm pretty sure I don't have enough yarn to finish but I'm prepared to alter that pattern as much as I have to to finish with what I have. After winding the whole big loop up I got this. I call it my dinosaur egg.

That is the patten I'm using in the background. It is called the laguna blouse. I love the gathered sleeves. However, it I run out of yarn those will be the first to go (unless adding shaping will solve the problem). I'm thinking that with both shaping and changing it to a tank top I will be able to make something wearable out to this ball of yarn. It is meant to be knit in two parts and sewn together but I have changed it to knit in the round and this will involve no sewing!!! It is a very simple pattern to so this endless sea of stockinette is starting to get the best of me. I hate the thought of having to rip it all out and re-knit it. My progress so far is a bit tube, about 11 inches long.

I have about 11 more inches to go and I'm pretty sure that I've used more than half of the yarn. But I'm going to knit it all up before riping back to see just how much I'm working with. The yarn is very nice to kit with. It smells like being in a corn field. But only when you are knitting or working with the yarn (ie is needs some heat to bring out the corn field smell) it is very nice. The weird thing is that after knitting for over 1/2 hour my thumb starts to burn a bit (like I'm allergic to the dye or something) I don't know if this is normal or if I should worry about it but I still am in love this the corn. A quick search on ravelry showed me that this is not the only corn yarn out their. I am very interesting in looking into different weights of this delightful fiber. (I LOVE CORN)

This is so hard

I now have new respect for those who keep a blog and update it every day or at least 5 times a week. I'm finding it very hard to just do it once a week. And this one will be very short.

I finished the hoodie!! (actually last Monday and I'm already half way done with the corn shirt)

First Fiber Festival

This last weekend was my first fiber festival and I was so excited. Thankfully I sort of forgot about it the week going up to it or there is no way I would have been able to sit still at work. I forced my self to set a price limit of what I was allowed to spend and only brought cash. Thankfully my mom and grandma came with me or I would not have been able to eat.

There was so much cool stuff at the festival, I have tons of new ideas. There was one booth that had felted vests (with zippers), these reminded me of performance fleece (ooh its fine, sorry if you had finally forgotten this commercial). I really want a good felting project to try and a hat or bag didn't sound appealing to me as I would never use either. Of course either would work well as a gift but do I really want my first felting project to be a gift? What if it doesn't turn out and then I don't have time to go and buy something because I finally crammed in the last of the knitting one day before I'm to give said gift? The next thing at the same booth was felted Christmas ornaments, I particularly like the dove. (if you look really hard at the picture you can see them) (looking at the book I think she was with Brenway Fibers 895 East Kneeland Road, Mio, MI 48647, 517.848.2012)

The next memorable booth was the linen people. The linen woman was very gun-ho about her fiber of choice. She started telling me what the whole 12/1 or 8/1 meant and I told her that I had done my research the day before and was considering using 8/4 or 8/5 for my first linen project to get my feet wet and decide if I really wanted to invest in linen. This is when she almost attacked me for wanting to use plied linen and how that would ruin it and I was so stupid for wanting to do such a thing. At this point she asked me what size loom I was using and figured out that I wasn't going to weave it but knit it. She got a tad bit less angry at me but then was completely uninterested in speaking to me.

I have never seen this much wool all in one place. I thought for sure I would finally add some wool to my stash. I was leaning toward a wool silk blend or some kool-aid dyed wool from the Minnesota people. I really wish now that I had gotten the Minnesota people's business card. The 'grape' still smelled like the kool-aid it was dyed with! I almost bought it right on the spot but I had promised my self that I would look at everything there before deciding on my one purchase (since I set myself a $40 limit). (looking back in the book I think they were Rach-Al-Paca but I'm having a problem opening their website)

Another group actually brought their Lamas and where shearing them right there too. See one lama with all of its hair and one with out and there is the pile of hair waiting to become yarn.

There was also tons of roving (it this the proper term for all fiber not yarned up? Or is it just for wool?) that I was soooooooo tempted to start spinning. I successfully resisted this year. However I now what to grow cotton in my backyard once I own a house. There was this cotton lady and she took us through the whole process of growing cotton and how it looks (the cotton flowers are lots of different pretty colors) and she even had a few samples of cotton still in the seed. Once I grow my own cotton I will become a spinner.

The yarn purchase that I made was a fiber that I had never herd of before and simply could not live without. CORN!!! I defiantly prefer fiber to be the plant variety and not the animal variety. I do not know why, but I do. I love my soy yarn, desperately want to get linen and am thinking about bamboo after the soy is all knit up. All of my other yarn that is of the natural varieties cotton (and I have a lot of cotton and am planning on getting more soon) Now I have my corn and to get it I very quickly stepped aside the thought officially owning wool (something most would call a requirement to call yourself a knitter).

Their yarn is so cool and I'm going to use it as my next project and am now rushing to finish the hoodie (only the sewing left). I have already picked out a pattern but am not sure if I will have enough to finish, I really should get a measuring thing or a ball winder (note how I don't even know the proper term for either of these things let along have one). I'm thinking that these guys did much better than they were expecting and didn't have any skines wound up left by the time I got to their booth around noon. They where selling what is ~3 skines and a slightly discounted rate. They did have some skines and some people were requesting it wound up in skines before purchase but I was happy with my big loop. (not knowing how much of a problem this would cause for later)

I picked out a gray silvery color that is not actually gray at all. It is a blend of many grayish pinks purples and blues. I normally hate variegated yarns for the same reason that I don't knit with multiple colors in one project. But this color combination really spoke to me.

However I do now own wool yarn despite my prior paragraphs. After all of this me and my mom ran some errands and were next door to the craft store and I needed to get some red fabric for a purse I'm making for my mom so we went in. Well, lets just say that we didn't find any red reminisce but I did find yarn on clearance, and wouldn't you know it but it was wool. I now have two skines of wool that will felt up nicely and enough wool-acrylic blend to make a sweater.

The Yarn

My nephew's hoodie is coming along quite well. I just finished the front about 5 min ago.


Now I had said before that I loved this yarn, now I still do but I am angry at it (or at least was Friday night) The yarn is a baby yarn!! Yes I found baby yarn in grey. It is Sweet Delight Baby in soft licorice. Since my nephew will be 3 I obviously did not what to make this in baby colors but wanted a soft yarn that would not irritate his still soft skin. My husband did not understand this when yelling at me to take the first yarn that what the right color. I can't believe how many different colors this comes in. I will defiantly be buying it again.

Now for why I am angry at the yarn. It knotted very badly and I had to eventually cut it out. I never have to cut knots. I was the worse knot I had ever seen and worked at the damn thing for well over 2 hours before giving up and getting the scissors. Now this knot might very well me my fault (I can only say this in retrospect). I went to see Batman and brought it with me to knit in the theater. (I had never done this before and was very proud of myself, however I did look pretty ridiculous. My husband could only get tickets for the 6 o'clock show so I had to come right after work. Now when I got dressed for work that morning I didn't know that this would happen and didn't have a change of clothes with me. I had worn a dress and since I commute on the train I leave my work souse at work and change into my tennis shoes to go to and from. Well I was wearing a work dress (not a going out dress, very different) and tennis shoes with socks. Did not give a very good name to knitters with my apparel) But anyway I was knitting in the dark for about an hour before the knot appeared. Now since I was knitting in the dark I could not see the knot start for form (I was getting to the end of the skein where the loops tend to over lap and can cause knots) and was therefore not able to de-knot as I went along. So this monstrosity of a knot formed. I spent the next 1 1/2 hours of the movie trying to get this thing out and then about another 30 min once I got home in the light. With the light letting me know just how bad it really was I had to give up.

But as it turns out me not being able to knit for that last 1 1/2 hours was actually a good thing. I had just gotten to the row where I needed to start my decreases. I of course did not measure after the knot incident so I had to rip out all the knitting that I did once I got home (a good inch). Now if I had knitted during the rest of the movie that would have been much more.

My solution to Gauge problems

I always find a pattern and have every intention to bring it with when buying my yarn to make sure I pick something out that will obtain the right gauge. However that never happens or if I do bring it with I end up falling in love with a different yarn that must simply be used for this project. Do I fret, go home to get the pattern, say no to the yarn that is calling my name? No way!! If I'm going to take the trouble to make something hand made I'm going to do it my way (and I'm not going to waste my time or gas to get the pattern b/c more than likely I won't follow the yarn requirements anyway). Here is how I still end up with a garment that fits.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PATTERN GAUGE

The hoodie pattern I'm working on now calls for a gauge of 18 stitches and 24 rows per 4 inches and the yarn that I picked out got me 21 stitches and 27 rows per 4 inches. Now I was using No. 6 needles instead of No. 7 needles in the pattern because I want this sweater to be warm and tightly knit. No. 7 needles would not have gotten me the right gauge anyway so what was the point in using them? Now a solution might have been to double the yarn, but that would have meant that I had to go and buy more of it. Or I could have chosen another yarn, but I had already bought this one (which is totally awesome and I will speak more on latter). I did not what to do any of this so I didn't. To make the pattern work I simply changed my stitch count. I always do this. ALWAYS.

CHANGES TO MAKE MY GAUGE WORK

Unfortunately the method still requires a swatch, however it only requires ONE. I sometimes skip the swatch step and hope that I get the same gauge that is on the yarn label but that only works if you are going to use the same needle size as on the label. Now the simplest way to get my new stitch count is to do the math and see if another size in the pattern will now result in the size you want. For example in the pattern I'm using the largest size if knitted on my new gauge would result in a size close to the middle size. Here's my math:

32" chest in the pattern calls for 72 stitches for the front

72 stitches / 18 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 16" (which is 1/2 of 32)

72 stitches / 21 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 13.7" (which would result in a 27.5" chest)

If 27.5" is what you are looking for, say your nephew has (or will have when you finish) a 24" chest then this will work perfectly. Just follow the stitch count and directions for the large size.

Now my nephew had a 25" chest when I measured him last time I babysat. However that was over a month ago and I fear he has grown, also I'm not giving this to him for several more months until his birthday so I fear that he will grow even more. Now I want this hoodie to be at least 2" lose and I'm going to figure a 2" growth (which might be way to much but I don't really know exactly how fast children grow, just know it is fast) gets me to a 29" chest. I'm now going to use the size increments from the pattern to test out new stitch counts.

The cast on stitch count for the front is 56(64, 72) which takes 8 stitch increments. So I will now see how large 80 stitches will be.

80 stitches / 21 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 15.25" (which would result in a 30.5" chest)

Now this is a bit on the large side of what I was looking for but he will always grow. I was not willing to chance the 27.5" chest and have him grow out of it before I gave it to him. So this is what I cast on. Now because this pattern has even increments for all of the stitch counts I no longer needed to do much math. I just figured out the increment and got the next one (ok this is still allot of math but adding and subtracting not multiplication and division, ie you might not need a calculator)

Sometimes you run into problems where this will not work, for example using my new total stitch count of 80 I will need to decrease on both sides 22 times (44 stitch decrease) and result with 34 stitches left on the needles. I would not, 80-44=36 not 34. This means that on my last purl row I decreased too (since the decreasing was only on the knitting side). I would suggest reading through the whole pattern first and figuring out your new stitch counts before you start to solve any problems that might arise like this one. Sometimes the solution that makes the most sense would have been to only cast on 78 stitches (which I probably would have done if I had taken my own advice but I didn't) The row count calculations can be figured out on your way, I do the math in my head while knitting and I always (so far) have enough time to finish, knitting several inches takes much more time than even multiplying and dividing.

I love No. 6 needles

I'm now working on a hoodie for my nephew. (it's so weird that I'm an aunt. I still don't feel grown up, nor do I want to be but for some reason I am now or at least am considered to be. When I first met my hubby his sister was pregnant and her baby boy was our ring bearer in our wedding. Not that he actually made it down the aisle, daddy did not go with him since daddy was a groomsman so nephew started yelling and was taken out side so grandpa who was to walk with him had to be the ring bearer.) But anyway my nephew is going to turn 3 this year and so far I have only knitted him a blanket for his first b-day.

THE PATTERN

I found this pattern on raverly. I'm not going to put in the cardinal b/c the hubby will turn it down. Any patterns on anything knit is too girly for any nephew of his to wear. Also, I'm not all that into knitting with colors. I really prefer to make something a solid color, it looks more professional to me. I did however like the accent color along the hemming and am going to use that.

THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS PATTERN

This pattern is really cool like that, it has a hem and an accent turning ridge and the pocket is knitting into the front instead of sewn in later. I've never done any of this stuff and now I'm like, why didn't I do this before? I'm slightly disappointed that the hood isn't picked up along the neckline but it is instead knitted separately and then sewn in. I'm figuring that I will fix this. This might be much more difficult than the other changes I'm making in the pattern since the hood it knitted from the top down (which is why it is knitted separately) so that the hemming can be done in the same way as the other parts of the hoodie.

WIP

Here is the work in progress (and why I love no. 6 needles):




I had been using no. 3 needles and fine yarn for so long that I forgot a project could go quickly. (ok I'm exaggerating but this is why I will never be able to get into knitting socks) I already finished the back in ONLY 3 DAYS!!! (and this is without extra time put in other than my commute)

A green balcony

My grandma got me this really cool patio garden for my birthday a few years back and this is the first year I have been able to use it and I love it. I was worried that nothing would grow since we don't get that much sun. (have a north facing balcony) There is direct sun light from about 5 pm till it gets dark. But this stuff is growing like crazy (plus I kind of put to much stuff in such a small space since I didn't think it would grow all that much) Here was the beginning:

And then it grew into this:

I then added four pots of flowers. I still don't have any flowers on the flowers but I do have flowers on the tomatoes and the cucumbers. The cucumber were a bad idea on a balcony since I found out the are reachers but now I have this:

A baby cucumber!! No tomatoes or green peepers yet but I'm sure they will come. There are a bunch of herbs too that are growing nicely; rosemary, dill, parsley, oregano, and two kinds of basil. The chives are not growing so well, but they seam to have survived the first batch of stalks dying and are still alive.