An actual knitting FO, seriously!

Project Details

Pattern: Huckleberry Ascot
Designer: Kat Coyle
Yarn: RY Classic - Cashcotton (DK 607)
Needles: Size 6 (4 mm): 24" circular

This was such a quick and easy project, how could I not make this? I haven't completed a knitting project in such a long time, this was just what I needed... baby steps! Since I had no clue whether this would be another abandon UFO, I decided to work with what I had in my stash which was brand new balls of Rowan Cashcotton (it is so soft)! This project was simple garter stitch worked sideways, with short-row shaping to create a wide bell shape at each end. On each end, stitches were picked up (I remembered I'm not real fond of this part) to add bobbles. Even with the short-row shaping, this is an excellent project for a beginner (no purling).

This was an excellent distraction from the burn out and sore finger tips from all of the hand sewing on the jacket. Now, back to sewing...

Couture Knits

Knits are another big trend this Fall, especially chunky knits.

Giles tangerine oversize wool scarf, Image courtesy of Vogue, Sept. 2007

Giles olive wool cardigan, Image courtesy of Vogue, Sept. 2007

"Soft Chunky" by Twinkle by Wenlan, Image courtesy of Vogue Knitting, Fall 2007

I like this chunky cardigan by Twinkle and not to mention that this will be a very easy knit -- done on US size 15 and 17 needles!

Brace yourselves...

... don't pass out, you might want to sit for this -- I've been KNITTING! I know, shocker right?? I've been determined for months to finish Flair. I've put it down and picked it up and put it down and picked it up! LOL It had been such a long time, that I'd forgotten where I was in the pattern so I frogged it and started fresh. I'm feeling really committed to it this time and I should be done in a few days.

How was your weekend?

Even though I didn't get any sewing done Saturday or Sunday, it was still pretty good. On Saturday, I got a chance to hang out with Adrienne at Barnes & Noble... seems to be our spot.

I gave Adrienne a little impromptu crochet lesson.
Don't let her fool you... she's making a ripple afghan and she'll have it made in a month! LOL

In other news, looks like our "Ebony Elite" Yahoo knitting group has really taken off which is a great thing. Oh, and we also created a blog to post projects once we really get going. I hope no one that reads here took this to be something segregated or negative... that was not the point AT ALL. The point was to "inspire" and "encourage" women of color, primarily Black women, who may not have thought that knitting was something for them and we just wanted them to partake in the revelry. It's amazing the amount of ruckus the idea of us starting a knitting group created over at Live Journal, it's no where near as deep as they were making it out to be. I respectfully suggest that she focus on her knitting and not what we over here are doing if she is that put off by it.

Hopefully today if there are no interruptions, I can start on my white linen jacket and pants... that'll be two more S.W.A.P. pieces finished and I might even be able to knit a piece for the collection.

T.G.I.F.!

Boy... what a day. I switched ISP's (from Charter.net to Bellsouth.net), and it took all day long to get my Linksys Wireless Router configured. Seems like my Linksys IP address conflicted with the the Bellsouth one. Needless to say, all computers in the house are up and running.

Adrienne and I, are joining forces in creating:

Ebony Elite: Women of Color, Knitting Together!
click for the Yahoo Group!!!

This came about from an incident that Adrienne had a couple of months ago when she was approached by a woman that said, "I didn't know black people knit". Since this is a public perception, we are trying to encourage Women of Color to knit so that there will be no doubt that Knitting is NOT just a hobby for ONE race or religion... it's for all people. So, pass it on and spread the word!

Project Spectrum - May

I finally finished both of my projects for May's "Project Spectrum". I'm feeling very Lily Pulitzer!


Project Details:

Pattern: Picovoli T-shirt
Designer: Grumperina
Yarn: Sinfonia Mercerized Cotton
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Hook: C/2.75 mm
Start Date: May 10, 2006
End Date: May 23, 2006

Modifications:
Great pattern! I really loved the shaping details. Who would have thunk it... knitting darts into a sweater! I'm easily impressed! I opted not to have the picot edging especially when I decided to make a floral skirt. Now, that would have been a little to cutesy and girly! Casted on and bound off for the straight edge and add a trim of single crochet to prevent rolling. Oh, also add a few extra inches to the bottom for additional length.


Project Details:

Pattern: McCall's M4783
Fabric: 100% Cotton purchased at Hancock Fabrics

Modifications:
Decreased the width of the yoke by 2 inches. Placed invisible zipper on left side instead of back.

She blocks!

More pics to come...

Nothin' but knittin' today!

Crappy view from my front door

Since I hate to drive in the rain, especially since visibility would probably have been 0% today, I started on the Picovoli/Tivoli. I think I'm rather addicted to these quick and easy littly tops that knit from the top down. Anytime I don't have to sew seams, that makes for a great project!

Start of the Tivoli

Bonita Shirt

Must give shout-out to my favorite LYS owner, Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark of Knit Nouveau. She has her first published pattern in Interweave Knits Summer 2006.

Project Spectrum - May

Springtime, ahh...

I don't know if I've every really been that fond of the color green, until now. While searching for this color, I thought about cheating and just pulling images off of the web. But green is so obvious... it's everywhere! I walked outside and I was blinded by green and all of it's glorious beauty!

With all of that walking and searching, a girl gets a little thirsty! I came across this new vintner -- Banrock Station. Let me just say, this chardonnay is as good as it is cheap inexpensive -- $4.37 at good ol' Wal-Mart Supercenter!

Here is yarn that I pulled from my stash:

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Just found out today that I am Black Purl Mag's Blog of the Week. How cool is that? Very!.

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This is what I'm currently working on:

4 inches into Orangina for the SKC KAL.

Up the frog pond...

head hurts!

without a paddle! Have you ever had one of those crappyassed days where nothing looks right? That's what I'm having right now. It may be PMS, I'll have to check the calendar. Or I may be falling into a fiber slump. I tend to do that every now and then. It usually happens when I do a lot of projects back to back. After I finished Green Brown Gable, it was like coming down from a high. I really enjoyed that project, it was such a fun, easy, mindless knit. I feel like I need to be doing something similar even though there are a million other things I want to make. I can be so wishy-washy sometimes. I think I may be manic-depressive and I'm on the depressive end right now. Knitting and crocheting is suppose to be fun, and I'm making it stressful. I'm stressing over getting it all done and trying to hurry through projects to the point of making stupid mistakes. I really had a brainfart... I looked down at a crochet project I was doing in the round and to my horror it was TWISTED. What a nightmare! Needless to say, all of that gar-bage in the pic above has an appointment with a lillypad and ticket to the frog pond!

A tornado, not quite orange and a litte side hooking

Yes, I know it looks like a tornado struck. This is a pile of crap computer workstation that my husband is putting together for his mother. Why did he even attempt to start this at 11 pm lastnight? It was unlikely that he would finish if he had started this at 11 am this morning! Why he decided to invade my familyroom and personal space with this monstrosity, I don't know. You would think commonsense would have told him to toss this in the back of his truck and haul it to her house to assemble it. Husbands + commonsense = oxymoron!
After everyone in the knitting world has already done this, I finally started on the Orangina for the Sexy Knitters Club KAL. I started this on Sunday and I was so excited to cast on that I didn't realize that I didn't own any Size 3 circulars. So, I ended up getting started on straights. This was an instant reminder why I only like knitting on circulars.
Looks like I've been bitten by the crochet bug. This is the very cute Flutter-Sleeve top from Fabulous & Flirty Crochet. I'll tell you a little more about this book later...

Green Brown Gable - Complete!

Project Details:

Pattern: Green Gable
Designers: Rachel Iverson & Sarah Johnson
Yarn:
Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton/20% wool; 215 yards)
3 skeins of CW825 Truffle
Needles:
Bamboo US 6 (4.0 mm) 16" & 29" Circulars
Bamboo US 4 (3.5 mm) DPNs
Start Date: April 21, 2006
End Date: April 27, 2006

Modifications:
Completed as part of the Green Gable KAL. This is a great pattern, not many alterations were needed. The only modifying I did was to add increases 9" from the underarm. I knit 7, increased and repeated 2 more times.

FO Preview

Green Brown Gable is done!

As soon as my photographer arrives from school, I'll get a great picture for you!

Green Brown Gable Progress

Just took the sleeves off of the needles. Can you tell just how excited I am? Insomnia is a mofo! I think I over caffienated myself on Crack Starbucks. Even with all the other things I've had to do this weekend, Green Brown Gable is really turning out to be a quick knit... it's flying off of the needles! If I don't get too occupied with everything else, I should be done with this is a few days!

I've always wondered how other bloggers can get such perfect pics of themselves. Then there are the ones who take the in the mirror shots and forget to turn the flash off (also, forget to clean the mirror). DH laughed while I was attempting my "self-portrait". He says that I spend as much time setting up a photo for the blog as I do knitting.

Fun in the sun knitting!

It was such a pretty day today, how could I resist a little poolside knitting.

Progress made on GreenBrown Gable.

Up next...

Next on my list is the GreenBrown Gable.

I've gone and joined another KAL for this project. Memberships are addictive!

Project Spectrum - April

me being big-time goofy!

Project Details:

Pattern: #15 - Whip-Stitch Tunic from VK Spring/Summer 2006

Yarn: Berroco Touche' (50% Cotton/50% Rayon)

16 hanks - Color #7920 - Orange

1 hank - Color #7900 - White

Needles: Addi Turbo US Size 8 (5 mm)

Hook: Size H/8

Start Date: March 25, 2006

End Date: April 18, 2006

No modifications necessary on this one. The recommended yarn for this project is Classic Elite Yarns - Posh. Yeah, about that... this yarn retails for around $32 a hank, 11 hanks were needed... you do the math. I substituted with the Touche. This yarn was very splitty, but it feels wonderful. There were a lot of fibers floating around while I was knitting. At one point I thought I would hack up a fur ball! The tunic has been washed and blocked and no pilling.

If the weather cools down, which I'm sure it will because we are at unseasonable highs this week (today - 90 degrees!), I'll get a chance to wear this before fall.

What about those ends?

How do you handle your loose ends? Whether you are a knitter or crocheter I hope you would take the time to properly weave them in. This has been an ongoing discussion on one of the list I belong to today. Some of the members really have bizarre methods that they use. Here are some of the preferred methods:

• "I use a little fabric glue when I finish them in to avoid their coming back out in the wash"
• "I never spend time weaving in ends because I hold the tail next to the chain I'm working on and crochet right over it. Isn't that what you do when you weave them in? Makes sense to me..."
• "Personally - I'm a knotter. I know many are horrified at the idea of knotting, but I'm more horrified at the idea of actual stitches coming undone in the middle ofmy project!"

There were more, but I felt a migraine coming on from reading them.

Since I brought it up, I know you are wondering how I weave my ends. As daunting as it is, I use a tapestry/yarn needle to weave mine for both crochet and knitting. I have yet to have something unravel. (knock-on wood)

Making progress...

Time to get back to this tunic before it's absolutely to hot for it. I got the sleeves going this morning. This is my first time working with set-in sleeves. I decided to knit them both at once. I had never heard of such a thing until I read Wendy's blog. I love learning new tricks especially when it's time saving.

This evening I have to take Mikaela to a birthday party at the Y. It's an indoor pool party. It's so hot today that it could have almost been an outdoor pool party -- 83 degrees! I hope it's not misconstrued as me being rude, but I'm taking my knitting with me!

Regularly scheduled knitting has been interrupted!

This is what happens when you are working on a time-consuming project and it is preempted by a cute, easier project:

Pardon my wrinkled linen skirt.

Project Details:

Pattern: Tube Toporini
Designer: Rachel Iverson
Yarn: Kim by King Yarns (55% cotton/45% acrylic, color: Moss Green) -- 4 balls
Needles: Addi Turbo US Size 7 (4.5 mm) & US Size 8 (5 mm) 24" Circulars
Start Date: April 9, 2006
End Date: April 12, 2006
Modifications:

After the 1 x 1 ribbing, at about 3.5", I began increases for additional shaping. Repeated rounds C and D until 14" (instead of 13") and worked the K3, P2 ribbing for 3" on US Size 8 24" Circulars.

Back to my regularly scheduled knitting...

WIP Report

The Whipstitch Tunic

I managed to finish the front of the tunic, it's starting to look like a real sweater. This is my first time knitting a sweater that has to be assembled, I've gotten a little spoiled from knitting in the round. I'll start the sleeves probably on tomorrow.

The Zip-front Jacket

Remember this? Picked up the hook and did a little crochet on yesterday. Still working on it, haven't forgotten it.

The Tube Toporini

I was dying to use that new, pretty green yarn so I cast-on for the tube toporini. It's working up quite lovely.

Haven't forgotten about the Chevron rib tank, just on the backburner for a while since it's really a summer top.