I haven't blogged this much since February

Yup. I'm up at 3:30 am.

I'm not, however, knitting at 3:30 am, what kind of a knitter do you take me for!?
I was working on the Mod Dress from Knit 1. Here's where we were when I last posted about this monstrosity:



Since then I had seamed up the sides and the straps and tried it on. It was entirely too big. I am currently awake because I was working on this dress. Here's where I'm at:



I always liked that TV show Square 1. Now, I know what it's like. The first go around didn't actually take me all that much time to make. This time around, there will be less stitches so it might be a bit quicker. Also, this time I can make it so that the flower is on the correct side of the dress. Not a big deal, but something that will be nice. Going along from the success of the Roundabout Tank, I'm going to be knitting the smallest size. Now, if only I remembered what size needle I used to get gauge! I should really write those kinds of things down somewhere.

While at The Point this afternoon I bought a pair of size 2 bamboo circs. Knitting Icarus on size 3 Addis was akin to knitting with goop - it just felt gross and gooey. The bamboo needles are giving me the friction I need to be able to figure out what it is I'm doing, and I'm able to keep track of the pattern a bit more. I re-started for the millionth time, but I think this time will stick. I'm a trooper at heart.

Speaking of trooping...I think I'll troop off to bed.

Two Projects

One good

The River Rapids Socks are going quite well. I love what the Cherry Tree Hill is doing! The spiraling is really cool I hope it continues doing that! See for yourself:



One bad

The Icarus Shawl is not going so well. I keep losing track of where I am in the pattern, and I never get farther than a few rows into the first chart. The damn charts are easy, I don't see why I can't do it! But here I am, completely incompetent at reading charts and figuring out where i am in the pattern. I'm typically really bad at fixing errors when they have something to do with yarn overs, so this is a pretty big problem project for me. I'm looking at starting all over, though I guess I could tink back. Problem with tinking back is that I'd have no idea whatsoever what line I'd be on by the time I finished tinking back. I guess this is telling me that I should start with life lines or something like that. I'll have to look up how to do those sometime soon.

Until then, here's the profile of the perp:



I just realized that this photo is looking at the wrong side even though i stopped when I was knitting on the right side...the problem I'm having is with the left side in the picture. For some reason, I don't have enough stitches on the needle for the row that I'm on. Now that I'm thinking about it I guess there's a decent way to fudge it, but if I keep on fudging it, the whole things's going to look like crap (fudging it once leads to a slippery fudgy slope and a hideous looking finished object - at least for me). I guess I should start checking out the Icarus KAL that's out there...maybe someone there will have some insights.

Oh, and I think I'm going to try Sock Wars...I have yet to sign up though.

Thank you all for your generous comments on the Roundabout Leaf tank! I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and if all goes well, I'll really wear it to SNB this week. I got sidetracked by work friends (and my boss) and hijacked for dinner (free dinner - you see, I had to go!) on Tuesday.

Finished Roundabout Tank

It's been a while since I've had a finished object to show off, and it will probably be an even longer time until the next one. I managed to finish the Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature on Friday night as I was watching the Red Sox. It was probably the most comforting action I could have undertaken at such a shameful moment. So I present to you the ROUNDABOUT LEAF TANK:



Yarn: Berroco Denim Silk in color Absynth (yup, followed the yarn procedure to the letter). I think I ordered 9 balls and have about three and a quarter left over
Needles: size 8 Denises (love them Denises, but found that the cord has as much memory as an elephant which became annoying later on.
Modifications: I think I joined somewhere closer to 33 or 32 inches instead of the 41.5 or the 36.5 the pattern suggested. I just held it against me to try to gauge the correct lenght the piece had to be before I joined it. Because of that the part where the strip tapers off at the top ended closer to the middle of the back instead of towards one of the edges. Also, joining it a bit closer created more negative ease which was a very good thing. I found that because I made it so tight across the chest it kind of gave it its own shaping. This might be mistaken for being "too small," but in actuality, I think it works out quite well. It's quite comfortable and I don't feel awkward not wearing anything underneath it, and it's not so tight that it's uncomfortable. It just seems to go to my shape, which is good.

All in all, this is the first project I've ever knitted for my top that's been wearable. The Olympic Project was really supposed to be the first one, but it kind of petered out and looked horrible on (I think because the gauge was too big to be flattering on me). My roommate's going to try it on though, and I'm going to tailor the neck to her specifications. I'm hoping to wear it again this week...hopefully tomorrow to stitch n'bitch, but we'll have to see.

On the needles currently is the Icarus Shawl and the first of a pair of river rapids socks (yup, that's a link to the pattern folks!). I'm not sure I've got the gauge for the socks quite right. I'm somewhat worried that its a bit too small. I'm having issues with Icarus because I can't seem to keep it straight. I think that's kinda pathetic because it looks like such an easy pattern.

I'm also looking around for a Wallaby Sweater pattern that someone told me about at Barnes and Noble a few months ago. I randomly ran into this woman and she started telling me about the sweater and we kinda kept in touch for a bit, she copied the pattern for me, and then I lost all the information that she gave me and when she called me we just kept playing phone tag and trying to connect and it just wasn't happening (psst - if you're that woman, you're really awesome - and I still want to see the sweater - I'll swap you something for it, really!). I really like the idea of it, but the manifestations I've seen online have me a bit worried. Mostly for the armpit area and below. I'd like the sides of mine to be more or less straight with no shaping, but I definitely don't want it to get wider around the chest and taper towards the bottom. I've been thinking of designing something, but we'll see. It seems like such a simple idea that there has to be a decent pattern out there for it.

Knitters Pinky

I had been skeptical of knitterly pain. I didn't think such a thing existed. Until now. My pinky is in quite a bit of pain. It hurts if it's extended, or even if it's curled up. The most interesting thing of all of this is that my pinky is in no way related to the knitting event. It just sits next to my hand as I insert the needle and wrap the yarn around it. It sits there, curled up, and goes along with the rest of the hand for a ride. I've no idea what to do.

I promise I'm not trying to be like those cool kids at Michelle or Jessamyn. I stay far far away from the kitchen and don't touch such sharp knives. The (arguably) good thing is that I don't think I'll be knitting much today so my pinky can have a rest. There's a couple people leaving our company, so we've organized a happy hour to see them off. Hopefully the booze will help where Advil could not!

The Trials and Tribulations of Knitting Clothing

I don't knit a lot of clothing. This is probably the reason I don't exactly know what size I should be knitting when I knit clothing. For example, remember that Mod Dress from Knit 1? The size options were: 32, 36, and 40" across the bust. Now, my bust technically is about 39" across, so it made sense to me to make the 40" size. While making the Roundabout Leaf Tank, I realized that I should be knitting a MUCH smaller size than I originally anticipated. I joined the piece when it had reached only 31 inches across. I kept testing it as I was knitting it around to make sure the fit was the way I wanted it to be. So it appears as though I've realized the wonders of negative ease!

This kind of sucks because the Mod Dress is already complete. The seams are seamed, it's all together - it would be ready to wear if I weren't so damn thin. I got some amazing advice while I was at The Point tonight from Illana. She suggested that instead of re-knitting the dress from scratch that I just seam the edges in a bit. I'm not sure if it will really work because it'd be such a large difference, but it's worth a shot before I un-seam and completely un-knit the whole garment. I'm soo sad. I was so excited to wear it!

In the meantime, I'm knitting the Roundabout Leaf Tank like a fiend. Here's where I am on it:



I'm on the third roundabout, and I'm thinking of starting to do the decreases sometime soon, but I really just need to sit down and do some math to figure out where I need to start the decreasing. I might just knit my heart out until then.

I still haven't even really read the new Interweave Knits, but I've already found another project that I'm planning on knitting:



The Bianca Jacket...

(you can all stop oohing and aahing now...I haven't started it yet!)

Just a little quiz!

What NYC yarn store are you?

You are The Point!http://www.thepointnyc.comYou want it all. You might have a hankering for the most luxurious handpainted silk yarn. Or maybe a couple of skein of Kureyon. Don't worry, you can sit down, have a latte and absorb it all...
Take this quiz!








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