STITCHES West 2008!!

I joined Erin and her mom at the knitting/yarn vendor show over the weekend. Was it just me or did it seem more overwhelming than it did last year? I'm sure it's because we went on a Saturday this year when the majority of attendees go. We did go late Sunday and it was pretty mellow, although I felt ill and was in no mood to shop.

I made a list of what I wanted and stuck to it. This is what I found:

• 2 more skeins of the Malabrigo Silky Merino I need to finish up my Clapotis.
• I bought enough Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Burgandy to make a jacket.
• Addi circular needles (Sizes 1 to 3, two diferent lengths each) to make socks.

I couldn't find yarn for 2 other projects I want to do and didn't feel like finding substitutes. When I get to them I'll know where to find it at the LYS or online. I talked myself out of buying a different color of silky merino since I didn't have a project in mind. I always know where to find it at LYS's that don't mark it up higher. Most of my budget went towards the Addis. *pout* I needed them so I can make more socks without dpns and other lace items on my To Do list.

Oh wait, let me geek out for a sec. I have to share my knitting celebrity sightings! Yes, I'm a dork. First stop at Stitches was the Ravelry booth and saw Jess and Casey! They were crazy busy of course with all the Ravelers swarming about them. We picked up a Ravelry Passport and played the stamp scavenger hunt. For those of you who are familiar with Knitty Gritty on the DIY network, I saw Vickie Howell!!! We were waiting to get a stamp on our passport at a vendor. I hear a familiar voice...I turned around and there she was standing next to me talking to the vendor. She's petite up close as I imagined. There were other Ravelry regulars I recognized on boards I frequent. It was kinda cool actually seeing them in person. Anyway...

It was pretty fun looking and shopping but soooo exhausting. Can't wait till it's in town again next year!

Do you like it raw? Silk...that is.

I forgot to mention that I'm done with the Filigree Scarf. It's gorgeous!

It's made with Artfibers Golden Chai. It's a very nice light scarf. I like the idea of wearing raw silk but it's very "sticky". I probably won't seek out any 100% silk yarn any time soon but I'm finally happy with this finished knit. =)

I attended the local knit group down the street from my house for the first time tonight. Why the hell did I wait so long?! I truly enjoyed meeting the people I met...everyone is so friendly. Knitters generally are really nice people. =) I hope to attend regularly from now on.

Silk + Merino = Luscious

I finally found Malabrigo Silky Merino at Imagiknit earlier this week. YAY! This stuff is dreamy soft. They had just got in 3 colors, 4 skeins each. I took all the Nocturnal. I just LOVE purple. I had decided that if I ever found a good deal on Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb or found something similar to it I would make another Clapotis. I hate the first one I made using Noro Silk Garden. It's pretty but so scratchy on my skin. I've barely used it. Silky merino is very similar to Lion and Lamb but a smidge lighter in weight.

I couldn't wait so I casted on Clapotis. It's beautiful :) I'm probably going to buy every color of Silky Merino I can find at Stitches West!

I should be fixing (or frogging) TD but I don't wanna. Not ready yet.

Last week I went to Daiso (Japanese dollar store) in Union City. Lookie what I got:

- stitch holders

- bamboo crochet needles

- buttons

- foamy mats to use for blocking

All $1.50 for each item. Daiso is awesome.

I love it. I can't have it.

*sigh*

This lovely pea coat pattern that calls for a bulky wool is so cute. Problem is bulky wool and my bulky Jean-sized body don't mix. As much as I want to make this I can't. I'll end up with a sweater that will make me look like a linebacker. Not the look I'm aiming for.

I'd knit it up if I could figure out the math/stitch count using a different weight yarn for this pattern. I'd rather not think that hard. On with my quest for another pea coat.

Another lesson learned after knitting a sweater

I'm done with the Tilted Duster with the exception of button placement. It's blocked and the sleeves were a bit damp but I tried it on anyway with the anticipation of loving everything about it.

Before blocking, the ribbing was ridiculously tight and I was concerned. There was a lot of "butt hugging" going on. Last thing I need is attention in that area of my body. Fortunately I found other Ravelry TD knitters who gave tips to assure others that the hugging will become drapey after blocking and they were right. The back turned out great. It's the front and sides of the skirt that came out too big. *pout*

The sides of the skirt. Oh man. Where do I begin? They look like wings. OK, I'm being way to critical but it's just not how I expected this sweater to turn out. I wasn't expecting so much positive ease when I thought I was going to have too much negative ease. There must be a way to re-plump the wool without fucking it up. I swear there's an article somewhere...


So my hard lesson learned this time? Wet block swatches before casting on and be patient. No matter what. I read this tip all the time regarding swatching but I never do. Now I know why. I could've gone down a needle size or gone down one sweater size.

Once I move my buttons to a better spot on the collar I'll take some pics. For now, I need some time to grow to like my TD because I'm not sure if I want to take her out in public.

One more TD sleeve to go and an addition to my stash

Seaming sleeves = NO fun

It's not difficult but it took me HOURS to figure it out on my own. I researched online, asked around in Ravelry, and looked for tutorials in my knitting books. Jeezus! If I drove over to my favorite yarn store and asked for help I would've had it down in minutes. Unfortunately any yarn store is out of the way for me around here. It sucks. The Antioch/Brentwood area needs a yarn store BAD. It would do very well out here considering this area has grown quite rapidly and there are crafty people out here. There's no competition except Michael's and Walmart but us snobby yarn enthusiasts prefer premium yarn stores with great customer service. Know what I mean?

What was I was talking about before my rant? Oh yes, my finishing. So yeah, I need to sign up for a finishing class (too late now to sign up for anything at Stitches West). My shotty job is ok for now but with future projects I would like to make my finishing much nicer. I still need to block and re-do the placement of the buttons. This isn't a great pic, but here it is:

On Ravelry I'm part of a fan group for Showtime's series, Dexter. I LOVE that show and have seen every episode. Carrie, of Socks in the City created Dexter themed colorways available for purchase that are sooo cool. Some of the colorway names are Dexter, Dexter's Canvas, "103", Lila, Hawaiian Shirts, Ice Truck Killer, Dark Defender, Bay Harbor Butcher, Beneath the Bay, and Hooker's Fingernails. If you watch the show then you can only the imagine the colorways. Carrie is so right on with the dyes. The one I had to have is Ice Truck Killer, pictured below. It's a basic superwash sock yarn. I can't wait to knit myself up a pair of socks! I found a little red splatter on the skein. I find it kinda funny, like a little blood splatter that the ITK missed. Not that blood splatter is funny, but if you watch the show...OH nevermind.

I gotta get back to seaming now.

The knitting plan in 2008

This is the beginning of my third year of knitting. I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished so far (such as learning how to knit continental and knitting socks) but I have so much more to learn and many more things to knit. I decided to make a very short underwhelming list of what I'd like to do this year:

1. Knit a Fair Isle pattern...something small, like mittens.
2. Learn how to knit a pair of socks on a circular needle. I have no problem with dpns but the less needles to use the better.
3. Learn how to knit using magic loop methods...which is probably similar to #2.
4. Learn better finishing methods for knitted garments.
5. Figure out how to read Japanese knitting patterns.

Told ya it was short. I'd like to avoid disappointing myself whenever possible. =) I'm sure I'll get sidetracked somehow but we'll see how it goes.

**edit** I need to add one more thing to my list: LEARN TO CROCHET!

Swiftless no more

Bubba will be very happy when I tell him that I don't need him to help me wind up my yarn anymore. My most anticipated knitting toy arrived today. My swift!!! I can now wind skeins independently! I found it on etsy.com (my other addiction) by theknitstore.

It's so inexpensive compared to other swifts I've found online and at yarnstores. I love a good bargain. Plus it's handmade. It's a simple wood swift and you don't have to clamp it on to anything like most swifts. You don't need a winder but it helps to cut down on tons of winding time. TONS.

Here's my set up on the coffee table:


And here's the resulting pretty ball of yarn:


Yippee!

TD update and the "happy" gift recipients

I haven't worked on the tilted duster as much as I wanted to this past week. I thought I was going to knit the entire time I was dog sitting for my brother because I'd be bored out of my mind but that didn't happen. When I finally got a chance to take a breather I figured out how to seam the shoulders of the TD (as seen here)
and seam the sides of of the front and back portions using the mattress stitch seen here:
I love learning new stuff about knitting! I still have so much to learn. Here is the upper body finished:
I'm a bit further along since I took this photo. I knitted one sleeve, skipped the other and went for the skirt next. I'm about 5 inches into the skirt. Picking up stitches for the skirt was a complete bitch. I kept losing count of how many I needed to pick up and for some reason I was having a really difficult time picking up and knitting the stitches because they were really tight. Was anyone else out there having this problem? But anyway, I'm in skirt rib hell right now. It's taking forever. Peruvia is extremely rough on my hands while knitting but after blocking the front and back pieces they were surprisingly soft. I have about 5 more skirt repeats to go, still need to knit up the other sleeve, and then do the ribbed collar. Yup. That's all.

Here's my niece and cousin with their knitted gifts I made them:Marhiel has a purl scarf with some floofy yarn I found at Jo-ann's. Yes, it's acrylic but whatever...it can be thrown in the washing machine. There's no way in hell her busy mom would remember to handwash it. If I used wool it would be a felted mess by now and my efforts would've been wasted and I'd be upset.

Leila got the fingerless gloves and foliage hat made out of Malabrigo worsted. (She wouldn't put the hat on because she didn't want to mess up her hair. Whatever. *rolling eyes*)

If they didn't like them they definitely humored me and flashed a big smile for these photos.

Happy New Year to everyone and more fearless knitting in 2008!

No more gift knitting till next year

The Red Sox Socks I'm giving to my friend are finito.I'm over my sock anxiety. This is a good thing since I have some sock stash yarn waiting for me. But that will have to wait. I'm off and running on the Tilted Duster from IK's Fall 07 issue. I'm using Berroco Peruvia in Sea Turtle. I swatched it up last night and got the correct gauge on the first try on Size 10 needles.
I casted on this morning and mid-way through finishing the upper back. A pretty quick knit so far and it's looking good.
If I didn't knit up my last cardigan in gray I probably would've chosen a gray shade for this one. I love green, but not sure about this green. There's a bit of gold in it that I didn't catch before and not sure if this will suit me. On the other hand, how can I go wrong with Oakland Athletics colors?

Second time around

Back in August or September I started one sock. It's twin never saw the light of day. It came out wonky and huge. I felt defeated, gave up, and moved on to other projects. Since this is a Christmas gift I'm on a knitting deadline now. I frogged the unfortunate sock last weekend and made myself knit it over. I am halfway done with the second sock. I notice myself slowing down with the 2nd sock and dragging it out. I would love to learn how to knit 2 socks on circular needles at the same time. It wouldn't take me 5 months to finish a pair of socks.

I HAVE to stay away from yarn shops

Purchase overload!!!I walked into the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette intending to only buy 2 skeins of Shibui sock yarn and check out the Berocco Peruvia colors for Interweave Knits' Tilted Duster. That's all. I couldn't help myself. They had just got in a huge stock of Peruvia in every color. I fell for the Sea Turtle colorway and purchased it...and the sock yarn...and more sock yarn. Wow. I guess I'm making socks.

The blue Handmaiden Sea Silk yarn on the bottom I received via UPS today also. It's for the Montego Bay scarf from the IK Summer 2007 issue.

Gosh I love green. I can't seem to steer myself away from it.

Anyone have a clue on how I can sprout 2 more sets of arms and hands so I can start all these projects at the same time?! I can't decide on what to start next! These are all selfish purchases BTW. It's all for me me me! Well, except one pair of socks if all goes well.

I thought it was done

Juliet has become a work in progress again.

It's been sitting in my closet for over a month, unworn because I wasn't happy with the results. The armholes were ginormous. I seamed them up and it looks much better now. It finally has the cap sleeve effect that I've seen in other Juliets.

I'm not loving the buttons either. When I find buttons I like better I'll change them out.

Foliage Version 2.0

I made a few modifications inspired by a cute slouchy hat I found at Old Navy the other day. It was chunky with a soft brim. I think it was crocheted, but I had to figure out how to make a knit version.

Modifications:

• Knitted double stranded for chunky Foliage version.
• Added brim. After looking at knitted hat patterns with a brim I settled on using knitty.com's Topi brim.
• Repeated leaf pattern 2.5 times (instead of 2 for chunky version) to make a bit slouchy.

I'd like it to be a bit slouchier and maybe blocking it will do the trick. The brim is a bit thick and should have knit it single stranded. It's not exactly how I wanted it to turn out but close enough. As much as I love Malabrigo, this colorway isn't the best for the lace pattern.

I suppose I have no excuse now to not work on gift knitting. Back to working the socks. Maybe after I make more fingerless mitts with the extra Malabrigo left over.

Selfish Knitteritis

I couldn't resist. I have to make one for my own noggin before I start Christmas gift knitting. I've been thinking about not knitting as many gifts this year because I had a flash back of this time last year. I was literally knitting during every free minute I had and my head was spinning. To my knowledge I know that everyone I made gifts for loved what I made them but mannnn...it became too much. I know it's poor planning on my part knitting last minute but that's just how I work, dammit. I don't think about knitting for other people until the end of the year because I'm too busy making stuff for myself. =)

Alrighty...gonna get a move on and work on my Foliage. I'd like to make one modification to it. I don't want to mention what it is to avoiding jinxing and botching my idea.

Quick Mitts

I can't believe I got a pair of fingerless mittens out of 92 yards of Malabrigo left over from Foliage and there's still a yard or two left. It fits snug on my hands because I should've used size 7 needles instead of size 6, but I think for the recipient it should fit perfectly.

One Christmas gift done...more to go.

Like a Plum Tree

Except on my head!I can't say enough good things about Knitty's Foliage hat pattern and mmmmMalabrigo yarn. The combination makes me happy.=) It reminds me of my big plum tree in my backyard. Unfortunately I have to part with this. I decided I'd get some Xmas knitting out of the way early. The lucky recipient better love Foliage as much as I do.

Loops and Buttons

Woo. Finished.

Love love love Artfibers

Last weekend I took a continental style knitting class at Artfibers in San Francisco. Their 3-hr workshops are very reasonably priced. Amy was the instructor for the 4 person class and she was super patient and very helpful with any questions we could come up with. She kept encouraging us to ask more. The 3 hours went by so fast! I got the hang of continental knitting but still a bit slow at it. Getting the right tension will take some practice. I'll eventually get my rhythm.

Of course I bought some yarn to practice what I learned. No way I was leaving Artfibers empty handed. I purchased a cone of Ming (half silk/half merino wool) in a bright teal color and a ball of Bambusa (97% bamboo/3% silk) in a mossy green. Bambusa is soooooo soft that I'm considering making another Juliet Cardigan out of it. They were out of the color I wanted so I'm waiting for them to notify me when their next shipment comes in.

I'm do plan on taking some more classes at Artfibers again and learning more techniques.

Juliet is almost finished

Sorry for the crap photo...gray on gray blue doesn't work well.

All it needs are buttons. I'm headed to SF this weekend for a knitting class at Artfibers and afterwards I want to go to Imagiknit to find buttons. Last I saw they had a cute collection of them. Can't wait to start wearing this by next week. I'll have better photos to post by then.

In the meantime, I'm going to get going on the next project.