The long stretch begins

Well, it's been about a week and half since last update. I admit, I've been bad. I blame school. I'm sure that come April this blog will get more interesting as I get more quality knitting time done.

I do have a FO to report, my fingerless mitts that i've been coveting these past two weeks are finally done, hooray! Despite some painful frogging on the second glove due to a misplaced cable, I managed to get them done mostly in the car and between tutoring appointments, here they are in all their yummy yarn glory:

I adore them and wear them as much as I can now. and it just happens to be the perfect weather for them now as well as spring is just starting to happen here. (Actually the weather seems to be having some personality disorder issues and keeps going from 20 below to above 0 with no notice whatsoever and then suddenly back down to way too cold temperatures. No rhyme or reason.) I even wore them to band last night and they kept my hands nice and warm while I piccoloed away!

But we ask ourselves, why has "the lond stretch begun"? My next two bigs projects I think will take a very long time and will need lots of dedication on my part. The first is my International Scarf Exchange scarf! I'm just so incredibly excited. I've heard from the woman knitting for me (hello there secret pal if you're reading this *waves*) and I've received my match. And I absolutely can't wait to spoil her.

Yesterday I took a trip down to my LYS and picked out some super luscious wool. Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 55% merion wool 33% microfibre and 12% cashmere in the color Eggplant, a gorgeous deep purple (which my camera truly can't capture the beauty of well enough). I'm making the "Oak Leaf and Acorn Scarf" from Fibre Trends. It's done with a provisional cast on which took a try or two and I can't figure how to do it without manualing having to untwist all the stitches for the first row... But it worked. Here it is after the first repeat (though it's a lace pattern so it won't look the way it should until post blocking, alas) and ignore the pink waste yarn :)

And the second long project, a baby blanket. My cousion is due in September so I figure I have plenty of time. I decided to be a masochist and throw all advice to the wind and knit it instead of crocheting. I just hope that it doesn't come back to haunt me because the doctor thinks she might be having twins and I'm now concerned that I'll be stuck having to finish two blankets now that I'm commited to one. But, I will be happy to do it. There's something really special about baby blankets. I'm making it out of Bernat Satin in the color Bahamas (the most gender neutral but still baby color I could find):

Oh, and there's a slight chance that while picking up the scarf wool this on sale discontinued color yarn may have found it's way into my purchases:

A change of heart

So after knitting my fingerless mitts for a few days I've had a change of heart. I am just so in love with them that I think I have to make the Fetching next. And when I went to check out what yarn it needed it just happened to list one skein of Cashsoft Aran from Rowan. Clearly it's a sign of fate that I should use it to make fetching and be satisfied with the two skeins I already have set aside for the Calorimetry.
Though there was a bit of a sad moment today making the Dashing right mitt, namely a misplaced cable... 6/7 rows back *sniff* It was really disheartening to have to spend all that time ripping it back. I'm just too impatient and desperately want them done now.
I also failed to mention that in my trip to the LYS store I invested in a set of size 1 DPN made from bamboo. So I tried a few rows of the next socks. And while the needles were so nice to work with, I kept having nightmares of my snapping them in half from putting too much pressure on them (my metal dpn are noticeably bent where I hold them). So let's cross our fingers that I can manage to not break something I own. I'd show how the socks started to knit up but ofcourse there was a mistake so I just took it right off the needles. But it was only like 2.5 rows which I did merely to test out the needles ( I can't have the Monkey socks thinking I forgot about them!).
But it's off to study, complex analysis is calling my name for my test tomorrow (stupid test cutting into my knitting time, blah)

Yarn yarn everywhere

So, today's update will be mostly concerning yarn porn and the various projects I have lined up for myself. I spent yesterday scavenging through my LYS, spending much more than any non-knitter would think was necessary and already got through half a project. Not bad for half a day is it?

First we'll start with the project that I couldn't wait to get on the needles, Dashing from the spring knitty. And here it is (Misty supervised as it was my first attempt ever at cabling):

You can see a close up at right of my first cables, *Awww*. It started to go much better after the first cabling row in which I was dropping stitches like there was no tomorrow and my house was filled with the sounds of needles dropping to the floor every ten seconds. (You can see why I needed kitty supervision!). Though I really do have to work on getting the tension at the twist spot even because some are much tighter than others. But for a first try, I'm happy with it.

The yarn used was this:

Tahki Yarns "New Tweed" %70 merino, %15 Silk %11 Cotton and %4 Viscose. 103 yds/50 g. 2 skeins. Not the yarn the pattern called for because my LYS doesn't have it but I did stay true to the tweed intentions even though it's something I normally wouldn't buy.

Then next on the list is my yarn for the thing I've most been coveting for a while, a Calorimetry from Knitty Winter 2006. I have several yarns to make it from:

Featured to the left is Linnie 157 Tessa yarn from %100 Virgin Wool 85m/50g most likely for present making. To the right is some truly luscious Rowan Cashsoft Aran made from %57 extra fine merion %33 microfibre and %10 cashmere 95yd/50g. Oh so soft and totally destined to be my first calorimetry, woo hoo!

Next we move on to some slippers, namely Twinkletoes from Knitty Winter 2006 to be made out of this:

Rowam Calmer 75% cotton %25 acrylic/microfibre 175yds/50g with quite the nice feel to it. So I'm happy.

And ofcourse, my next sock project Queen of Cups from (any wild guesses here?) Knitty Spring 2007. Made from this:

Rowan 4-ply soft %100 merino wool 191yds/50g. And I can't tell you how unbelievably excited I am to get these on the needles. But ofcourse that means getting monkey sock #2 off the needles. And because it seems my blog update wouldn't be complete without a WIP of the socks:

And that's all she wrote folks!

One monkey down

So hooray! I've finished sock one of my knitty Monkey socks. And I absolutely love the way that it turned out and the colours. It just feels so nice on my foot and I only wish that the sock fairies would magically knit the other one over night so that I can wear them asap (unfortunately I think the knitting fairies are in cohoots with the homework fairies who also refuse to do all my work when I'm asleep as well *sigh*). And in case you can still take more pictures of the same socks, here is the FO:

And in wonderful news, all of my Christmas knitting is now given out! My aunt finally came over on Saturday and I gave her her leg warmers. But it also happened to be her birthday and I felt bad about giving her a Christmas gift on her birthday so I also did a quick knit up of hat she wanted. I made one for my cousin several months back and she really wanted one herself. Luckily it was a very quick basically straight stockinette hat that took next to no time. The look on her face was just great. I'm so happy that she likes them after all the happened to get them done. Here it is, modelled by Mittens who "just had" to include chunks of fur in the hat for her favourite aunt:

Last week I was doing some bedtime reading and picked up the book "Yarn Harlot" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and I have to say that I really loved it. You know that you've officially crossed that line when you find yourself identifying with a woman who and non-knitter would probably read her book and think she was crazy. My favourite chapter was the one with the lost tape measurers. I was laughing so hard that I was scaring Mittens who was curled up beside me and I started coughing I was laughing so hard. I think it's a definite fun read for any knitter.

Once again, not great knitting time prospects for the upcoming week but I'll be sure to cast on for sock #2 so that I have some car knitting for the week before I go to bed and I plan to sketch out a pattern for a crocheted bandana that I have flying around in my head. Can't wait! Have a great week :)

The Koigu Won

So much work to do in my life, so little time to do it all in. Every day as term goes by I'm more and more thankful that I've found my knitting moments to keep me sane.

Now, I may as well make a confession, though I tried to keep it stowed away in the bag I got it in, the Koigu put up too good of a fight and it ended up on spare set of dpn. (It has a mind of its own I tell you). So despite my (mostly) best efforts otherwise I am in the middle of another pair of socks even though my sweater is not done. But the socks are just so exciting, have a looksie:

I'm loving how the colours are turning out. The picture is actually pretty true to life in colour (shockingly enough). I wasn't expecting it to be that dark or to have so much in the way of greens. But I am not disappointed at all. So far there has only been one major mishap, a misplaced yo that I didn't catch until 6 rows too late. That was very tedious unknitting. The pattern itself is the Monkey sock pattern from Knitty Winter 2006. They yarn they call for has slightly more yardage so I cut out two repeats of the lace on the cuff to hopefully not run out of wool. And I'm glad it turned out that way because I think 6 repeats would've been too much anyways.

But, to make up for the sock fascination again, I did spend some time with my sweater. It's an off the shoulder sweater from the Bernat website. I'm finished the back and front piece and am on to the arms. After that, it's the round piece that flips over the shoulder. It's a very shotty pick, but here's the back and a bit of an arm:

I would link the pattern but I seem to be totally unable to find it any more on the Bernat website. Hmmm... I better make sure I don't lose the one that I printed off.

So lately, I've started to knitting in public to get more knitting time in. And I must say that I find it quite enjoyable. While I enjoy the zen solitude of knitting, I also feel strongly that nothing is worth doing if you can't share it. And I like it when people ask what I'm doing or come and share their knitting stories. And I'm finding more and more people I know knit. Some I never suspected suddenly come out of the cracks when they see me knitting. I like the feel of connection that art brings. Meeting people who know why I find it so incredibly addictive.

FO's for all

Tonight was an extravaganza of FOs. I figure that if I could get all the small projects out of the way that I might actually start to focus on getting my off the shoulder sweater finished (though that new Koigu wool is going to make it extra hard to not spend all of my time making more socks). Without further ado, here they are:

These are the leg warmers I promised my aunt for Christmas and promptly had to remake. But now I assure you that they are both 100% the exact same size as, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a difference of several inches in the circumferences of my aunts calves. They're made from Bernat's Satin wool. Just a K1P1 rib at the top, stockinette body and garter stitch at the bottom. Notice the obligatory pointed dancer toes pose in the picture :) I am now officially super jealous and wish I could have them for myself.

The second FO would have to be... my first pair of socks!!!

These were made from Sirdar Snuggly wool in the colour Party Pink on size 3 dpn. I must say that the second one I made looks much nicer than the first and was much easier. I think I may become a sock knitting addict. The kitchener stitch also went much nicer the second time around. I kept messing up and dropping stitches all over the place on the first sock but for the second I couldn't remember what I found so hard. I'm moving up in my knitting I guess.

And before I forget, welcome to the new visitors to my site. I knew something was up when suddenly I found three comments in an entry for the first time. Clearly, it was the working of Jewels from the university who got me started on the blogging. It was extra nice to see comments.

But back to work. Reading week is almost up and I have tons of work left to do. But on an end note, Misty did approve of my studying break to finish the knitting:

Back

So it's been a few weeks since last I posted. Mostly due to a lack of time to knit or sleep really. In the span of a week and a half there I had to mark about 150 assignments/tests, do 4 assignments myself and write 2 tests back to back. Just about died (well... not really, but my head sure felt like it).

Not that there isn't lots to do this week over reading week, but I have more time. I spent the whole weekend knitting. Unfortunately it was mostly do to the fact that I was rather medicated and slighlty out of it on pain medication and didn't have to attention span to do school work. But no complaints from me if it gets me knitting.

I first finished this gold evening purse which is a birthday present for my friend Leslie which she'll get sometime this week. Unfortunately the lining of it took me just as long to do as the actual purse. Hand sewing really isn't my cup of tea. But I tried very hard to make it the best I possibly could for her. Here's the result:

I apologize for the crappy camera which is about 6 years old. The details on the purse didn't come out very well. And I should mention that it was crocheted ofcourse.

Today I took a trip down to my LYS and was in my happy place completely. It's so tempting to buy everything you wanted. I settled on picking on the yarn I need to make my friend the devil eared equivalent of my kitty hat that she asked me for, some Paton's Brilliant in silver that my mom wanted so that she could knit a purse too but I did buy myself one special splurging present:

It's Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino. 100% Merino, 50g/175 yds. But it was popular that I couldn't get two from the same exact dye lot (they're made in lots of only about 20 or less). But, apart from dye lot numbers they also have dye codes for wools with similar colours so I had to settle for two with similar dye codes. But I figure that they're bought to make funky socks so slightly off colours won't hurt anything.

In other news, I expect imminent completion of my first pair of socks and to do the emergency fixing of my aunt's Christmas present before she returns to the city on Friday (I accidently made her leg warmers two different sizes, oops! I blame the stress of exams). Happy knitting all :)