Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Smile Please
For the record I'm not having fun - and thank God I'm a sock knitter cuz if I wasn't I'd be a total disaster right now. I goofed & my stitch count is all wrong -I've totally got to wing the whole foot - not like I ever follow the heel/foot directions anyway.
I'm just about done with the stocking - a bit more on the foot and then the really fun part... lining it - blech. No time to procrastinate about it though. Need to put this puppy in the mail ASAP! I want my Godson's mom to fill this baby up for Christmas morning. She is gonna hate me... it's huge!
After my first not so stellar attempt at stranding the name I decided to duplicate stitch it. Came out much better except in some places. How come some stitches are determined to let the white show and others do fine and let the green sit on top. Example check out how full the "M" looks in comparison to the "E" WTF?!?! Am I doing it wrong?
The pattern called for me to do his mustache in angora and the beard in plan wool. Why? I decided that Santa's beard needed to be as fuzzy as his mustache so I picked up some other fuzzy type yarn in white white to do the beard. I'm not super pleased with how it came out - the mustache sorta looks dirty. It's to late to do anything about - Mom thinks if I duplicate stitch a mouth it will be less noticeable - did you notice that Santa doesn't have a mouth? Not in the pattern either - I'm gonna have to wing it. Hopefully I'll get a smile and not some scary grimace instead.
I'm just about done with the stocking - a bit more on the foot and then the really fun part... lining it - blech. No time to procrastinate about it though. Need to put this puppy in the mail ASAP! I want my Godson's mom to fill this baby up for Christmas morning. She is gonna hate me... it's huge!
After my first not so stellar attempt at stranding the name I decided to duplicate stitch it. Came out much better except in some places. How come some stitches are determined to let the white show and others do fine and let the green sit on top. Example check out how full the "M" looks in comparison to the "E" WTF?!?! Am I doing it wrong?
The pattern called for me to do his mustache in angora and the beard in plan wool. Why? I decided that Santa's beard needed to be as fuzzy as his mustache so I picked up some other fuzzy type yarn in white white to do the beard. I'm not super pleased with how it came out - the mustache sorta looks dirty. It's to late to do anything about - Mom thinks if I duplicate stitch a mouth it will be less noticeable - did you notice that Santa doesn't have a mouth? Not in the pattern either - I'm gonna have to wing it. Hopefully I'll get a smile and not some scary grimace instead.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Christmas Knits
If you happen to be either one of my parents - go away. There are Christmas knits mentioned in this post. Come back in January ;)
A few random pictures I took during a kayaking trip this summer to distract you while we wait for the parental units to move on.
Why are you still here? You've seen these pictures - shoo!
OK - now that the coast is clear... by the way Christmas knitting sucks for blog fodder. Anyway - first up Dad. Dad made a request last winter for a pair of fingerless gloves. The pattern is kinda loosely based on this one. My gauge is completely different - I'm using a worsted weight - Cascade 220 - as opposed to fingering, and my dad has huge hands so it's VERY loosely based. 
I must say that the yarn is wonderful, how have I never worked with it before??? It's cheap and it comes in cool colors and it's SO nice. Everything a worsted weight should be. Love it.Next up - Mom. These are actually going to be a birthday gift - I hope. Her b-day is December 7th and I want to have the stocking done for my Godson by the first week of December so I may be pushing my luck. Luckily Mom's a knitter - I can give her one sock if it comes down to it. ;)
These are the Lombard Street socks from Magknits. The pattern is really great - easy to memorize and quick. The yarn - not so much. I picked it up in Rhinebeck - Aussie sock. It's beautiful and squishy and makes a really nice sock, but man is it splitty, and using super sharp pointy needles is not helping matters. They're coming out really pretty and I don't really have the luxury of starting something else so I'm sucking it up - but Aussie Sock... not a fan - which is a shame cuz it came in some slammin' colors.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Rip it some more
**Edited to add photos
I'm currently at Megan's twiddling my thumbs while she's on the phone with her mom. So I figured I'd steal the laptop and and do a quickie update.
The Christmas stocking is progressing. I finished Santa's face (have I even told you what the finished product will look like?) Anyway it's a big Santa face - that had to be completely ripped out and done over. My mom had this really great idea to use needlepoint wool for the small bits to save money.
Why buy a big hank when you only need a couple of yards. Really great plan for the small bits but I underestimated the size of Santa's head and needlepoint yarn is cut to 1 yard lengths. Let me just say it was a disaster (don't worry I have pictures - I'll put them up when I get home later). Anyway Santa got ripped and re-knit - for those keeping count that would be the third ripping of this stocking so far. 
And while we're talking about ripping things - guess what I did this weekend. I cleaned my room (a very rare occurrence to be sure) - which involves finding homes for all the various knitting paraphernalia laying about. While I was finding homes for things I made some decisions. I decided that life is short... I ripped out all the projects that have been languishing in the WIP basket. A sweater, two pairs of socks, two shawls, a scarf, a baby sweater, and half a blanket. It was possibly the most liberating thing ever! Now I just have to fight the urge to cast on a bunch more projects.
The Christmas stocking is progressing. I finished Santa's face (have I even told you what the finished product will look like?) Anyway it's a big Santa face - that had to be completely ripped out and done over. My mom had this really great idea to use needlepoint wool for the small bits to save money.
Why buy a big hank when you only need a couple of yards. Really great plan for the small bits but I underestimated the size of Santa's head and needlepoint yarn is cut to 1 yard lengths. Let me just say it was a disaster (don't worry I have pictures - I'll put them up when I get home later). Anyway Santa got ripped and re-knit - for those keeping count that would be the third ripping of this stocking so far. And while we're talking about ripping things - guess what I did this weekend. I cleaned my room (a very rare occurrence to be sure) - which involves finding homes for all the various knitting paraphernalia laying about. While I was finding homes for things I made some decisions. I decided that life is short... I ripped out all the projects that have been languishing in the WIP basket. A sweater, two pairs of socks, two shawls, a scarf, a baby sweater, and half a blanket. It was possibly the most liberating thing ever! Now I just have to fight the urge to cast on a bunch more projects.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Maiden Voage
I love technology sometimes. Gretchen just sent me this picture via cell phone. Her birthday socks got their first taste of the big wide world today - and she shared the moment with me. 
How great is it when your friends send you pics of the knitting doing weird stuff!
How great is it when your friends send you pics of the knitting doing weird stuff!Thursday, November 08, 2007
Daylight Savings
This time of year is a pain in the butt. I want to show you the knitting I've been doing (santa almost has a head - intarsia sucks) but by the time I get home from work it's too dark to take pictures. Unfortunately the flash on my new camera has the power of a thousand suns and makes a mess of any upclose shots. So until I get some knitting pics (I have high hopes for Saturday) I'll distract you with the pretty scenery.
This is the wall we climbed. Much fun. Even the part where I had a mini panic attack and couldn't get down. The best - we were filming our climb... got it all on video. Now if I could just get the video off the camera ;)
This is the wall we climbed. Much fun. Even the part where I had a mini panic attack and couldn't get down. The best - we were filming our climb... got it all on video. Now if I could just get the video off the camera ;)
