77 posts tagged “knitting pictures”
I went to the Purlescence sale yesterday. I was trying to stay away, but I was holding out hope that All Seasons Cotton would be on sale, so I could get some to make Manon. It wasn't, but I found some Maizy and Puffin that I liked, for socks and a baby blanket, respectively. Then I broke down and go the All Seasons Cotton too. I am accumulating sweater quantities of yarn. I need to get on the ball and start knitting sweaters faster.
I also wore my Tomato yesterday. I was going to wear it on Friday for HK, but Friday is preschool day with Stefan and I didn't really want paint and/or play dough or any of the other things the preschoolers were like to smear on it.
So while I was at Purlescecne, I picked Sandi and Nathania's brains about fit adjustments. Sandi measured my shoulders and helped me measure bust in the front versus the back, so I know how much more fabric I need. I noticed in wearing the Tomato that the shoulders are slightly too big and that the side "seam" where the shaping is gets pulled forwards and the sweater bags slightly in the back. I have a lot of adjusting to do! I think that Cookie was right recently when she pointed out that since I change patterns so much, maybe I should just start from scratch. I am going to get some knitwear design books out of the library and do that sometime soon, I think. I hope. You know, in my copious free time!
I seem to have a touch of startitis, so here's a shot of the Montego Bay Scarf that I started in BMFA Bambu. It's soft and lovely and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
I finished my Tomato tee today! (Ravelry project details.) I'm very pleased with it. I have to say that I was a bit anxious how it would turn out when I tried it on before washing it. It just looked droopy and not very flattering.
But, Pakucho is magic in the washing machine. All the knitting evens out and it shrinks about 10% into a wearable garment!
I am a sneeze away from being done with my Organic Chocolate Tomato tee. I've been quietly knitting away on it. It's hard for me to tell if it's going well, since it will shrink 10% when I wash and dry it the first time. It doesn't look great now, but hopefully that will change. I also have mixed feelings about the colorwork, but I think I will like that much better after washing as well. Washing fixes everything!
The thing washing won't fix is that the ribbing on the one sleeve I finished is too loose. I'm going to reknit it with smaller needles. Cookie helpfully pointed that out to me, but was kind enough to also warn me not to show her my sweaters, because she'll always find something wrong. Duly noted, Cookie!
I have also pulled my Lotus Blossom Tank out of hibernation. It was actually pretty much finished. I had sewn the shoulder seams and just had to finish around the edges and it was done. But, it wasn't right. I did two sets of short rows for the bust and that was too much. In addition, I hadn't knit far enough on the sides so it did some ugly angling things. I ripped back to right before I started the second set of short rows and I'm moving forward. It might even be done in the right season!
I knit another one of those adorable bunnies. This one is going off to my cousin's wife (along with the gift I knit for their baby that I have been meaning to send for months! shame on me) for her niece who was in an accident. I wanted to knit her something soft and cuddly for her recuperation. I read on my cousin's wife blog today, though, that she's diving off the couch to scare her parents already, so maybe she's done needing cuddly things. Hopefully she'll enjoy it anyway. The yarn I made it out of is Puffin by Crystal Palace which is like strips of microfleece. It's very soft. (Ravelry project details)
The only other thing I've been doing is planning for future projects. I slipped at Purlescence today and bought 13 more balls of Rowan Purelife to make the No Gap Wrap sweater form More Big GIrl Knits. That wasn't why I went there. Darn those yarn fumes.
I also picked up some Rowan Damask to use as the accent yarn in the Slipstream Pullover, also from More Big Girl Knits. I knit it up in the garter stitch slip pattern with the hempathy I had to see how it looks. I like it. I just need to knit another swatch of the Damask to wash a few times to see how it holds up. The yarn label says it's very delicate, but I want to see what it really can stand.
I finished my Shedir a couple of days ago. I really liked this pattern and this yarn (Calmer). Niels and Stefan wanted to model it too.
My friend Lisa is participating in The Relay for Life and requested help knitting chemo caps, and Kristi asked me if I had yarn that would work for me to give to Lisa and I decided to knit a few caps for her effort. I started with the Wavy Cable Lace Cap, from Elann. (Project details on Ravelry.)
I cast on right away for Shedir from Knitty, using the Calmer that I got from my No Sheep swap pal. I'm already in love with the yarn just from casting on. I can't wait to knit myself a garment with it, but for now, I'm going to enjoy knitting this hat.
I am finally ready to declare my Oblique done. Finally. (Ravelry details.)
Sorry I didn't smile. I have a hard time photographing myself. Anyway, since I last thought I was done I took out the ribbing and did it on smaller needles (6s instead of 9s) and I undid the k2togs holding the crossed part together. It was pulling oddly. Instead I tacked the sections together at the ribbing and at the edge, so it stays. I think it looks much better.
My favorite part of this sweater, though, is the side shaping, I think.
It's not that I have been knitting, I have. I'm working on Mingus, by Cookie, but I'm doing them toe up. Just since this is a knitting blog, I'll give you a quick peek at them. It's not terribly exciting. Actually, they're much farther along than this now, I just haven't taken any more photos.
Okay, so the knitting is out of the way, now I can talk about what I made today: an Amy Butler Frenchy Bag.
I think if I make another (and I might, in the shoulder bag size) I would use the decorator fabrics and sew down the middle of at least one of the pockets to give a smaller pocket option and also to keep them from flopping open quite so much.
I finished my Jeweled Steps socks tonight, from the Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. They are sidestream architecture. (Ralvery details.) So far, they are my favorite of the socks I've knit from this book. I might have to revisit that once they've been worn and washed a few times, but they sure are gorgeous and they feel great right off the needles!
It probably helps that I am utterly and completely in love with this colorway. I bought some of it in Bamboozle to make a Ribbi Pulli, along with the Bamboozle that was my last failed attempt at the Bombshell Tee. We'll see how that goes. The only negative thing about these socks was my own fault, I had a major case of second sock syndrome partially because I couldn't find my notebook with my measurement and stitch numbers in it so I had no idea how many stitches to increase and all that. Silly me. I'm glad they're done and I look forward to wearing them!
It's been all blankets all the time around here this week. Back in January I saw the book Knitalong online somewhere and started to think about making a blanket for Anabel's new little one. Specifically, I saw the Blessingway blanket, which looked like something Anabel would like. I talked to Kristi about it and we debated whether that was the right project, particularly since the book wasn't out and then thought about doing something more square, but what yarn? What patterns? You know, all the things you debate when starting a project. Kristi then happened to see a class a couple of friends of hers taught at her local LYS on log cabin knitting. We discussed a couple of different yarns to use adn then settled on Pakucho. Kristi picked some colors and I knit the first square.
We decided that we had a winner! So Mary and I wound yarn into the kits and distributed it to Janice, Lisa D, Lisa L, Karen, Rachel, Jeni, Teenuh, Jill and, last but not least, Cookie. One kit was sent off to Kristi and then I waited for them all to come back. There were more knitters than there were squares to knit, so Juls and Hannah contributed to the ordering of the yarn. The last square was delivered to me on Thursday at which point I got the crazy idea that we could finish the blanket by today because Kristi is in town and I thought it would be nice for her to be there when we gave Anabel the blanket. I sent out a desperate plea for help with seaming and Cookie, Jeni, Lisa D, Karen and Teenuh all came over yesterday evening to help. Thanks all! By 11pm, the squares were seamed.
Originally I had a crazy plan (I'm all about the crazy plans) for a border with mitered corners. Then I thought about an i-cord border. In the end I was pressed for time and overwhelmed by how large the blanket had become. Each of those blocks is 12" square! So, in the end, a crochet edging was added in natural. I did one row of single crochet and then one of half double crochet. I was pleased with the result.
(To those BobaKnitters mentioned here who haven't signed the card for Anabel, I have it, touch base with me so you can sign it, or email me a message to put in!)
