Monthly Archives: November 2013

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

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At my last post on Nutmeg, I was working on the sleeves. Seriously….one of these things is not like the other….

Sleeve #1 from my Nutmeg

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Sleeve #2 from my Nutmeg

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It might be hard to see in the pictures. But in real life….the decreases are NOT the same. Sleeve #1 called for K2tbl or knit 2 though the back of the loop. And I don’t know if I’m doing it wrong or it was supposed to be that way. But the decreases left raised bumps or visible loopy thing. They were raised enough to actually snag!

Now Sleeve #2 called for K2tog or knit two together. This decrease, while still noticeable, did not leave a raised bump or loop. Much prettier to my eye. So I’m going to finish up the second sleeve, put a lifeline in the first sleeve, and then re-knit the first sleeve to use the same decreases.

It’s not huge deal as these knit up pretty quickly. But still…AAARRGGGHHH! I’m becoming one of those knitters that has to have perfection. Life was easier before, lol

Happy Knitting!!

Shiny New Needles

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Look what my husband got me for my birthday!!!

20131112-131458.jpgI am now the proud owners of a set of Knit Picks Options Interchangeable needles. Comes wit needles from 4US to 11US and four sets of flexible cords. I couldn’t wait to try these out so I dug through my stash and pulled something from the bottom. I had some Patons Silk Bamboo I picked up on sale at Joanns many moons ago.

I have a skein of Coal and a skein of Sapphire:

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This yarn is just so silky and soft to the touch. It’s one of my favorite yarns to fondle in my stash. And I have been fighting the urge to cast on another Honey Cowl for this winter. And how can you beat the feel of silk around your neck on a cold winter’s day!

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I’m a couple repeats into the pattern. Based on my available yardage I chose to cast on an in between size, or about 160 stitches. I’m working one repeat in Sapphire and one repeat in Coal. I’m definitely in love with the color interplay!

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A couple of observations:

1) I shouldn’t probably work with smooth and soft yarn on smooth metal needles. It has a tendency to slip and slide.

2) These are the first interchangeables I’ve had that screw together. If you don’t tighten them all the way then they come undone and you have to start your project over….twice….

3) Don’t work on this type of pattern repeat when you are tired. You will work the repeats in the wrong order….

I still love my new needles and I definitely need a cowl to keep out the Kansas cold. In the future I will probably use my plastic needles with slick yarn and metal needles for stickier wool.

Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: One Pain In The Rear Sock

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I’m so over this project. Your guys’ wonderful comments last week were amazing and wonderful. Not to mention, full of great suggestions! But I just had to be done. I worked a few more stripes of color changes, did a 2×2 rib for a bit, and then bound off.

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I didn’t even have the heart to finish the skein. It was just one of those projects! It’s my stashbustin’ #41 for those counting and my Rav page is here. I did learn a lot:

Pros:
– I learned how to do a Turkish cast on
– I adapted the pattern to fit my measurements
– I turned my first heel
– This was my first fingering weight project
– I completed my first ever sock.
– I got to buy some neat sock blockers!

Cons:
– Dropping stitches was a pain on the rear to pick back up as I don’t own a small enough crochet hook
– My feet are big and therefore entail lots and lots of tiny stitches
– I should not and cannot do leg/calf increases on the fly…they just look bad
– I only ended up with one sock

After all this, I still want to knit socks. Next time I want to try two at a time, top down socks on circulars. I have the yarn, I have the pattern, just need to save up some moolah to buy the needles.

And because it’s Friday here is a pic of my solo sock on my giant lady foot 🙂

Yarn Splurge

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I was a bad bad girl on my birthday. I hit the “Going Out of Business” sale at my LYS like a Kansas tornado. I couldn’t pass up the 30% discount on the entire store stock. I snatched two sweaters worth of worsted weight, three single skeins of DK weight, some sock yarn, and finally some yummy tweed for a cowl or hat.

Wanna see?

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Berroco Vintage in teal

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Berroco Vintage in oatmeal

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Berroco Vintage DK in pink

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Berroco Vintage DK in purple

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Berroco Vintage DK in black

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Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet in burgundy

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Knit One Crochet Two Brae Tweed in green

Now to head over to my Ravelry queue to find some perfect patterns…..

Happy Knitting!

WIP Wednesday: Stashbusting Gloves

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I feel like shouting….”Once more into the breach!!!”

Are these gloves starting to look familiar? Well guess what, they should be! These are some Simple Fingerless Mitts (take three) or my Stashbustin’ #42 project.

P.S. sorry for the bad lighting….it’s getting so dark so early it’s hard to get good pics!

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I wanted to make another gift pair and do a little odds and ends stashbusting. I had some Berroco Vintage DK in orange from my first two pair of gloves and some Berroco Vintage worsted in yellow from my Brick Sweater.  They colors looked good together so off I went.

I weighed each remaining lot of yarn and divided in half. One half for each glove. I worked the orange (dk) in 2×2 rib until I ran out. Then I proceeded on with the pattern in the yellow (worsted) until I ran out of yarn. I wasn’t able to fully complete the 2×2 rib at the top, or really at all. So the mitt curls a bit…ok a lot. I’m going to give this first mitt a bath and a block to see if it solves the curl. Otherwise I’ll rip back and correct it. Then of course….knit the matching mate to go with.

Honest opinion time….do you guys think this glove works?

Only a few more weeks till Xmas…..

Happy Birthday to Me!!

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Today is the first day of my last year of my 20s. I’m officially 29….

I have the day off work so I slept in. I have had a wonderful fall inspired latte with homemade waffles. I’m going to knit on something totally selfish today. I’m going to eat birthday cake before my dinner. And I’m going to make the husband drive me to the yarn store 45 minutes away because it’s my birthday (yay!) and because it’s going out of business (boo!).

I hope they some stock left and it’s still discounted, fingers crossed!

Happy Knitting!!!

 

Stashbustin’ Stat Update

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This year is almost up!!! I can’t believe how fast it’s gone and Christmas is right around the corner. My Mom and I had a wonderful day this past weekend selling at the craft fair.  And boy howdy, are we tired! Being a knitting masochist, I have another craft fair yet to come before Christmas! I need to get back to my needles to “restock” my wares!

So today, instead of a object orientated post I’d like to share my “progress” this year on stash busting.

  • I have 42 Stashbustin’ projects in 2013 (not counting special request and craft fair wares)
  • I have completed 31 projects, frogged 2 projects, four projects are in hibernation, and I have five current WIPs.
  • I have knit approximately 8.56 miles and have another 1.88 miles on the needles
  • I have donated 1 mile of yarn to charity
  • And despite my best efforts…..added 8.94 miles of yarn back to my stash

Now I am still in the black as far as yarn in/yarn out. But I bought a lot of yarn this year. Some was for specific projects and special orders. Others was just because I could. I did get rid of some of my less than tasty bits of yarn and replaced it with better and higher quality fiber.

My stashbustin’ efforts may slow down a bit as we march towards 12/31, as I do last minute holiday gifts and restocking my craft wares. But I think I have made solid progress this year! I am still debating if I do another year of stashbustin’ in 2014 or some other method of measurement. I’m leaning towards another year of stashbusting just so I can see if I can beat my previous years levels…

Any thoughts?