Delinquent Blogger

I've been up to a lot recently.
Let's start with what I was up to in 2010.

1. Pearl Ten Malabrigo Feather and Fan Cowl
2. Bergen Street Mits
3. Sock 2 of the Pinstriped Jaywalkers - I got sock one and skein 2 at a swap, I just needed to complete the second sock
4. Hoot - an owl barrette for Kara
5. Sparkly Spiral Knee Socks
6. *KNITTING OLYMPICS PROJECT* Tangled Yoke Cardigan (didn't finish in time for a medal, but I did finish it, and I wear it all.the.time.)
7. Ingenue from Custom Knits
8. Bee Sweet Mohair shawl on the Bias - this was a sample I knit for Annie & Company Knitting
9. Damson - this was also a sample for Annie & Company Knitting. I loved this pattern and will no doubt knit it again.
10. Brown Baby Bobbi Bear for Desi, Illanna's baby!
11. Ishbel - this was also a sample for Annie & Company Knitting. They forced me to knit it out of Jade Sapphire 2-ply Cashmere. It's dreamy. I ended up returning some yarn at Purl yesterday and got some Jade Sapphire 2-Ply Cashmere/Silk to knit one for myself.
12. Rainbow Half-Assed Leyburns - Maybe I'll knit the actual pattern sometime. I was too lazy and the pattern wasn't showing up in the solid colored yarn I was using. Still love these socks though. They make me happy.
13. Seraphim - I started this shawl in Hawaii in 09 and finished it sometime in the summer of 2010.
14. Silken Straw V-Tee - I decided to turn this into a tank top, but I might try to put some sleeves on it anyway. Kaplan has some sort of policy where you can't wear tank tops to work.
15. Monhegan - I knit this sample for Nora Gaughan. Unfortunately, every time she's pinged me to knit a sample for her after this I've been busy. The most recent time with freelance for The Knitting Book
    - forthcoming from DK Publishing. :(
16. Kai Mei socks by Cookie A.
17. Twisted Carrot pillows for Heidi & Stew's wedding gift
18. Briar Rose Quincy hat - which I've already forgotten in a cab and have lost
19. Briar Rose Quincy Scarf - which still matches the hat, wherever the hat is...
20. Nutkins out of Mountain Colors Barefoot in Mountain Tango colorway - God, I love these socks. This yarn is still one of my favorite sock yarns.

The only reason I got so much done was because I spent a few months there being unemployed. The stash came in REAL handy, I'll tell you what. I really wish there were a viable way for me to just knit all the time and support myself that way. The amount of money I was bringing in during that time from knitting, however, just wouldn't have cut it on its own (I should give a shout out to the Federal and NYS Department of Labor for those unemployment benefits).

In 2011 so far, I've managed to knit two baby gifts already.
A Robbie Robot from DangerCrafts for Bess and Jeff's baby boy (born this week!).


This pattern was fun, but for some reason kept crashing the Goodreader app on my iPad. It worked fine on the Goodreader app on my iPhone 4 though.

And yet another Baby Bobbi Bear for Beth and Erich's baby boy to come. (I can't get enough of this pattern, it's so adorable!)



I'm working on a gift for my brother's wedding and I'd also like to knit an Ishbel before wedding season because I know I'm going to get cold at all these weddings. I had some extra yarn from the Robbie Robot and the Baby Bobbi Bear to return to Purl on Friday, so I picked up some Jade Sapphire 2-ply Silk Cashmere in Sterling:


I think that'll be a gorgeous Ishbel, right?!

I have so much more I've been thinking and knitting about, but I'm really interested in drawing a little tonight, so I think I'll hop on that instead.

My Knitting Olympics Project = Finished!

Green TYC = Done. I used the same exact buttons on this sweater as I did on the red Tangled Yoke Cardigan I made a couple of years ago, just in a nice kahki color.



I haven't tried it on really yet, so I'm not sure if it fits. I think it might be a little too big because I think my gauge was a bit off. No doubt there will be more photos once I've worn it. :)

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Question now is, what do I knit now!? I've got a Seraphim shawl on my needles, I haven't finished the bucket hat I started (mostly because I"m terrified it's going to be too big!) and I'm thinking it will be too warm soon to knit the Malabrigo Blanket. So I'm thinking of casting on something new.

I have a sock that Bev knit a while ago. I got both the sock and the yarn for the second sock. I really could use a pair of black and grey socks.

At the same time, I do have this lovely Madelinetosh DK yarn. And I'd love to knit Ingenue out of it from Custom Knits.

Wednesday night I'm going to Jersey for a business trip and I have another this weekend to Boca. I think I could probably finish that one sock during one or both of those trips, but then I'd have all that extra time without a project, so I'm leaning towards Ingenue. I'm having a bit of trouble getting gauge though. If I can't get gauge, I might just bring the sock and the Seraphim Shawl so my bases are covered.

4th Place

The worst place to come in, because it means you were close, but you couldn't quite make it. It means you totally don't get a medal even though you're heroic, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what place I'd come in if I were to compete in anything Olympic-wise.

I turned to Stan and I said, "maybe I just don't have the focus one needs to be an Olympian." He didn't say anything, because he's an amazing boyfriend, and gave the best consolation hug after I realized I had totally failed at medalling.

Here's the progress as Jacques Rogge announced the games were officially ended:



So what the hell happened? It seemed like I could totally do this, why didn't I?

The ribbing directions at the bottom.
I knew they were different, I thought I'd figured them out and written them down. I might have, but I probably did so in a notebook that is long gone. I had noted where to decrease on the back of the photocopy of the pattern. I remembered having issues with the ribbing at the bottom, but I was convinced that those directions I'd written were the revised directions because why else would I keep the pattern. They weren't. I followed them blindly, even when Beth told me it could be the ribbing patterning, I was convinced my problem was my gauge. It wasn't. I lost a day to swatching on several different sized needles, and made Stan drive me to brooklyn to get said needles (No really, he's a sport and a catch. And no, you can't have him, he's mine!).
My inability to concentrate on charts.
I had to rip back the first two rows twice because I couldn't get the right number of stitches between the 1 into 5 increases. I had to put stitch markers after every repeat so I didn't get confused, but I did anyway. I kept forgetting to mirror the cabling, so the chart took me way longer than it should have.
Plain poor planning.
Before the Ravelympics, Knitting Olympics or what have you, I made plans with Stan and our friends to visit MOMA for the Tim Burton Exhibit. I just neglected to look at the date and to register that it was the Saturday before Closing Ceremonies. :/ If I'd had that one more solid day of knitting, I think I totally would have finished.

Sigh. At least I have most of a nifty Tangled Yoke Cardigan done and I might even get it done sometime this week.

Solutions of Olympic Proportions?

So, my amazing boyfriend drove me to Brooklyn this afternoon to pick up a couple of spare sets of needles. I picked up my Knit Picks set (I really wanted the size 5 needle) and I threw in a set of size 3 needles I had lying round just in case.

We got home and the swatching began.

The 4 was too big stitch wise, but way too small row wise. So I tried the size 5. The size 5 was too big stitch wise (actually, they were identical stitch wise!), and still too small row wise.

So, I pulled out the size 3 needle. I'm used to knitting stuff on small needles because my gauge is looser than a woman in a red-light district. But honestly, I don't have any needles smaller than this with me, and even if I did, I'm not sure I want to knit a whole sweater on size 2 needles. So let's see the gauge comparison again:

Pattern gauge: 24 sts and 36 rows is 4"
My gauge: 21 sts and 33 rows is 4"

I'm moving forward though. I'm going to knit the small size, which, because of the gauge difference, should get me the right size. I just have to do a bit of rejiggering for the different row gauge and then I can start up again!

Problems of Olympic Proportions

I'm knitting the Tangled Yoke Cardigan out of Rowan Felted Tweed for my Ravelympics/ Knitting Olympics project.

I knit this project originally in 2008 on size 4 needles with the same yarn (red instead of the nifty green I'm working on currently). All of my project notes tell me that I knit this project with size 4 needles. That makes sense since I tend to knit rather loosely. Maybe I'm more stressed, but when I measured the project after row 29 when I was supposed to have 6 3/4" Instead, I have 5 1/4". I'm using the same needles. So here's the gauge comparison:

The pattern says: 24sts & 36 rows = 4" square.
My project says: 28 sts & 33 rows

This makes me think that I'm knitting entirely too tightly. I am kinda stressed, so maybe that's where this is coming from. I have a set of size 6 needles with me, so I'm thinking of (sigh) casting on again and going at it with the size 6 needles instead. But I'm wondering if I should step up to a size 5 first. I don't know, what do you folks think?

I was doing so well too, so I'm terribly bummed. :(

Preparing for the Knitting Olympics

Ravelry is amazing.

I knew I'd done a few mods for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan (Ravelry link) when I made it the first time. I remember that I needn't have elongated the sleeves, however, I didn't remember the other mods I made on the sweater. So I looked the project up on Ravelry.



The plethora of information and its importance is amazing. :) In order to complete this project, I think the important thing is to avoid the snags. The pattern is pretty well written, but I remember making notes as to which rows I needed to increase or decrease on, and I think that prep work will make the whole sweater kind of of fly - which is exactly what it's going to need to do in order to get done by the end of the olympics. It seems like the only major mod is adding a full inch to the ribbing at the bottom, which will be fine and simple.

The yarn comes in balls, which is awesome because it means I don't have to wind up all the balls before I start on Friday. I also bought some buttons for some Hoots (Ravelry Link) I made last year that don't fit the hoots. I'm contemplating using them for the sweater. They're simple white abalone buttons. I might head over to M&J on Wednesday to see if they have another button I'd like to use. I'm thinking of using a kahki version of the buttons I used for the last TYC might be nice (I really liked those buttons).

So, I'm feeling pretty well prepared. Everything's all ready to go after I copy the pattern and make notations.

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So I'm viewing this weekend as the trials.

I've got a bit more than half a sock left to go in these Spiral Sparkly Boot Socks from Interweave's Summer 2007 issue. I found that the chart for the instep is written totally backwards and makes the spiral go in the opposite direction. No one had noted this in their notes, which I was pretty surprised about. So I made a comment on the main pattern page on Ravelry and noted it down on my project page. Those kinds of things are so frustrating. There wasn't any errata or anything! I had to rip back 3"! Other than that, the pattern is fun and flies pretty quickly, even though they're knee socks! I can't wait to wear them! It's been pretty cold here. I'm hoping that I can get them done this weekend - and with time at the accountant and the Superbowl, I think I'll be able to get that done.

Maybe then I'll have time to knit a new hat for winter before the Olympics...

Mommy, where do socks go when they die?

I knit these socks out of STR Lightweight. I really like the yarn a lot, and actually, I'm wearing a pair of socks that I knit out of the heavyweight version.

I have learned quite the lesson, however. I'm pretty sure I'll be investing in some nylon thread the next time I knit a pair of socks out of yarn without any nylon. It's interesting to me to see which socks last the longest. And I'm suddenly in a sock mood. I want to knit every sock right now. Of course that's not possible.

Especially because the Ravelympics are coming! In 2006 I joined in the Yarn Harlot's kntiting olympics. I didn't medal. I came pretty close to finishing the sweater I was working on, but in fairness to me, it was my first sweater and it was knit in pieces and I had troubles with it to boot. I figured that to give myself half a chance this time, I should knit a pattern I've already knit before.

A couple of years ago I knit a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I really liked knitting it. I liked the faux seams on the side, I liked the shaping of it and the button band as well as the cables in the yoke. I actually found it fun to knit. Tragically, this sweater which I loved for a short time, had an unfortunate incident with some warm water and felted. It's still wearable, just not by me. So to give myself a fighting chance of actually medaling this year, and to replace a fabulous sweater which I dearly miss, I'll be knitting another Tangled Yoke Cardigan as my Ravelympics project for 2010. And, because I liked it so much the first time, I'll be knitting it out of Rowan Felted Tweed again, this time in green instead of red:


I haven't quite picked up the buttons yet, but I'm pretty sure that M&J still has the buttons I used on the first one, and that they come in different colors, so that's a good bet I think.

How about you folks? Are you joining in on the Ravelympics? I haven't quite figured out which team I'm joining yet, though, I guess I should do that soon. I'm tossing up the Brooklyn Team or Team USA. Are there any friends on either? Which should I join?