Yay!

Phew! Well, I finally got CS3! THANKS RAVI!!! I'd link to your blog but it hasn't been updated since like March.

So now I actually have photos of what I've been doing! Unfortunately, no sooner did I get CS3 (THANK YOU RAVI!!), did I find this wicked awesome site called Picnik. You can do all sorts of stuff to your photos there. Crop them, adjust them, etc. It integrates into Flickr too, which is HOT. And you can save photos straight to Flickr using that. Which is also hot. So go check it out.

Anyway. So I completed some projects. I still haven't managed to find time to get a photo of the skating sweater on me. And currently it's drying from being blocked. I got a lot of comments on it when I wore it a couple weeks ago. Someone at work, before I could even say I knit it, commented that she really liked it. It's really my first successful sweater.

I also completed one of my Monkey Socks. But I don't have a photo of that. And I just took a photo of it! I knit it out of Great Adirondak's Silky Sock in the Antique color way. I love how the yarn isn't really pooling at all. Check it out:


Surprisingly, I was patient with this sock, so it actually fits. I usually get so excited to kitchener stitch that a lot of times I knit my socks too short. This one I didn't. I just have to make sure I don't knit the second one short either and I"ll be good to go. I've started on the second sock, but I'm kinda putting it on hold until I finish Ann's Midnight Dot Mittens.

I've started these mittens three times. It's kinda gotten to the point where if this next shot doesn't work, I kinda want to give up and hire someone to knit them for me.

Look what else I finished:


Bess and Jeff's place mats!!! I haven't had a chance to pass them on to the recipients, but I did have a chance to take some glamor shots as you can see. There's more on Ravelry and Flickr.

Additionally, I knit a hat. You see, my old Sparkle hat from SNB was the first hat I really knit for myself. So it has some sort of sentimental value. This was before I realized the wonder of pattern erratas. I used the wrong size needles for the top of the hat (even though they were the needles used according to the pattern), and so the hat didn't really fit right. It's been a long time. That hat has started to look kinda shoddy. Looking felted even. So last year I bought some paiettes (don't even ask where, I've no idea, somewhere on 6th ave in the upper 30s) with the notion of knitting a new Sparkle hat. I had to dig for them, but I finally found them, punched holes in them, and the next night set to knitting the hat. It took me one night to do (I finished it shortly after Bleach ended on Adult Swim on a Wednesday night). And so I present to you, Sparkle Hat 2.0:


Nope, a photo can't get more myspace than that! I've gotten several comments about it. The manager at the Point laughed at me. But the best was some guy on the subway platform at Pacific Street. He came up to me and said "I noticed your hat from several pillars away. I just wanted to say that I like it and it's very festive." I smiled at him and thanked him. And then he disappeared.

This is important. I didn't say "oh thank you I knit it myself in a night" like I usually do. I just thanked him. It was significantly easier than telling someone, "no really, it's easy." or "yeah, I probably could sell them, but I don't feel like it." Why is it that people want me to be a sweatshop? Really?!

On a completely separate note, I thought I'd share some resources I've recently stumbled upon outside of Ravelry.

Knit Map is awesome. You plug in your zip code and they find knitting stores around you. I'm still not sure it's really complete. I did a search for Staten Island and it said that there weren't any there. I'm sure there has to be at least one knitting store on SI.
knitblog.com has a whole index of where to find pattern errata for several different books.

There was another cool thing, but I've completely forgotten it. Anyway...isn't that enough!?

Where Have I Been? What Have I Done?

Oh where to start? November first Ruth and I went to Anthropologie (yes, that Anthropologie) to meet Wenlan Chia, author of Twinkle's Big City Knits. I went partially for the free yarn (Anthropologie had it set up as a workshop where participants would make either a scarf of an ornament according to skill level), but mostly to meet Wenlan (I seem to be good at meeting knitting book authors!) and to ask her what the hell was going on with her sizing.

I thought I wrote some sort of review about the book, but I can't seem to find it in my archives. I thought it was rather scathing towards the inhuman sizes she has. I was confused. She came over to Ruth and I (who were obviously the most advanced knitters in the workshop) and we asked her" dude, WTF?! (but nicer obviously) She replied that because her garments are knitted on huge needles and the yarn is like roving, her garments stretch like mad and also, that they're built with quite a bit of negative ease to be form fitting.

So, I bought her book that night, along with enough yarn for the Skating Sweater from it. Anthropologie was selling Twinkle for $10 a skein! and 15% off of that because we were there for the workshop, so I'm sure you understand that I just had to! Curiosity got the better of me, and I started knitting it the next day once I found size 19 24" circiulars (Thanks Purl Soho!). After just a week, I was here:



Since then, it's been completed. I actually wore it Thanksgiving Day. The sleeve seams are a bit bulky, but nothing I can't get used to. And it fits pretty well. I'm not really sure if it looks alright, since I didn't get a chance to get a photo of me in it. I kinda wish it were a repeat or two longer and of the 6 or so skeins i bought, I have three left over.

I seem to be on a big needle spree what with the Berkshire Pullover and now this. I knit a hat out of one of the skeins, but I don't like it, it's too short (probably that I can just never get her row gauge). But I've also been working on a set of four placemats for friends who got married last May (hey1 I've got a year after the wedding!). I've finished all of them, I just have to weave in the ends and slap some made by tags on em.

I was sick last week, and cuing projects to Ravelry like mad. I bought the new Rowan book (there's LOTS of great stuff in there!) and kinda can't wait to finish up the projects i'm currently working on in favor of some new ones. Next up on the docket is going to be the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from the Fall IK. I started swatching, but I haven't measured yet at all.

I'll probably bring the placemats to SNB tomorrow so I can weave in the ends. And I've made quite a bit of progress on my monkey socks as well. I'm knitting it in Great Adirondack's Silky Sock in the Antique colorway. It's really great yarn to work with. Up there on my top five sock yarns I'd say.

So, I upgraded to Leopard, but the problem I'm having is that only photoshop's CS3 program works, which means my Photoshop 6.0 or 7.0 or whatever was obsolete. Also, I can't seem to get iPhoto to work either (probably because it's not part of iLife 08). So i found CS3, but I need a good Leopard hack for CS3 to get it to work, so if anyone's got that, drop me an email or something. My friend had one, but it doesn't work for Leopard I guess. We did try that screen sharing thing through ichat and it was pretty nifty. Thing is, I don't really want to put up any photos I haven't changed the contrast/ color on. I think mostly because my camera sucks and I always end up with photos that look like crap if they haven't been balanced.

Anyway, I'm still getting over this cold, so I really need to get to bed. Sorry for the virtually pictureless post.

I know I need to update for real, but...

This is just too cute...



If you want to order the book, it's being published by Simon and Schuster on December 26th. You can click on the image to be driven to S&S's book page.

HOW adorable!!??

Don't have enough $$ for an iPhone?

Knit yourself one!

Passionknitly: Now in Sepia Tone!

Generally, if Beth makes massive sweeping changes to her blog, it's time for me to update my aesthetic. I kid, but really, it was time for a fall/winter revamp. I've been feeling rather sepia toned lately, so this is what I came up with. Whaddya think?

I even (finally) updated to the new blogger format. This is actually going to make it much easier to manage the sidebars. Do I think tehy're going to be updated more foten? Probably not, but it's worth a shot!

Also, CONGRATS to the RED SOX!!! Now that the world series is over, i can go back to my regular schedule of knitting in front of Adult Swim and Boston Legal! That might even mean that there could be more blogging on the way!

RHINEBECK Recap

I have quite a bit of work to do, don't I? God, what happened to October!? I think I'm so swept up in my BOSOX playing in the world series and RHINEBECK.

So I fixed the Berkshire pullover, but I don't have any new photos of it. I assure you it's done though. I started it three times in three different sizes. I did each sleeve twice - one because I cast on too few stitches the first time, and the other because my row gauge was a bit off. And I undid the neck and re-did it so it was in the middle of the sweater instead of off to the side.

The monkey socks are pretty much the same as they were when I showed them to you in the beginning of the month. I haven't done anything with them because I've been working on placemats for friends who got married in May. I realize I have a year after the wedding to get them done, but I'd really rather get them done sooner rather than later. My conscience was getting to me, so I started them.


I'm knitting four of them out of King Tut Cotton on size five Denises. One's done, one's almost done, and then I'll only have two more to knit. They're taking me about a week each to complete, which means I knit faster than I thought I did. :)

But what you really want is a RHINEBECK recap right?
Our NYC SNB gals holed up at Blogless Jill's parents' summer home for the weekend where we battled fruit flies, watched Hitchcock movies and knit our hearts out. THANKS TO JILL'S MOM FOR LETTING US STAY THERE!!!!

I did most of my buying the first day. I fought my way in and found some appropriate STR, then I stood in a line about three booths long to pay. This is what I came out with:


STR Medium weight yarn in Carbon Dating color-way.

After wandering around a bit, I also found some nice roving. I looked at it. I felt it. I coveted it. I bought it.


I'm not sure what it is, but I suspect it's some sort of silk/merino blend. It was way cheaper than buying yarn! I was surprised. After that, Michelle was kind enough to wander around with me a bit to find a nice drop spindle.

I met up with a lot of awesome bloggers and folks on Ravelry. Met a bunch of people I probably wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't done the Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo.

Later on that day, I found some fabulous wool to knit the Spiral Pullover in.


Doesn't look like much does it? It's only about 1500 yards of Falkland Wool I got from Ellen's 1/2 Pint farm!

That evening, Blogless Johanna taught some of us how to crochet!


I think I actually got it!

So we went to bed, and woke up the next day ready to head back to the Sheep and Wool Festival. This time, I decided I wanted to focus on the animals. After buying a few buttons from Briar Rose Fibers



I managed to find a bit more roving that struck my fancy


This stuff isn't as slippery as the other roving I bought, so I'm hoping it will be easier to learn with.

We went to the Alpaca and Llama jumping contest, then pet some of the sheep



And I saw a really elaborate Mohair Throw:


psst! That's a real mohair goat!

We wandered on over to the author tent to see if I could get the Yarn Harlot to sign Claudine's copy of her newest book. I had a moment of weakness. I don't have much more room for books on my Knitting shelf. In fact, I would say I have NO MORE room for books anywhere in my apartment. I still collect them though, and so, obviously, I had to buy Clara Parkes' new book The Knitter's Book of Yarn. I also had to have her sign this book.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful trip. there was apple crisp and apple ceider consumed. Famous bloggers like Kate Gilbert and January One were noticed. People seemed to have a fun time, and I walked away with some awesome yarn. For a weekend in which i probably had about the the maturity of a six year old, I'd like to thank my fellow SNBers for letting me be the goofy comic relief of the weekend! <3 you gals!!!

Berkshire Trading Socks and Shania Twain's Sweater

It's kinda odd...I feel like now that all my stuff is on ravelry, I don't have as much of a reason to keep on top of the progress of my projects on my blog. Maybe it's just because I haven't felt much like writing either. Regardless, there's a lot more knitting stuff out there than I thought there was! Only thing is that when I take so long to post, I end up with these huge posts. Please forgive the verbosity!

The tattoo is almost completely healed and it looks GREAT!

I'm almost done with the second sleeve of the Berkshire Pullover as can be evidenced by the photo below...


I just have to do three more repeats of the decreasing pattern to get the sleeve
done, then sew down the cuff of the sleeve and the sweater.

Speaking of cuffs of the sweater, what do you think of this?


I'm not too fond of how the cuff is rolling up like that, but I'm not sure if that's something that will flatten out if I block it. The photo of the sweater has flat cuffs (both sleeve cuffs and the bottom cuff of the sweater), which is interesting because the sweater is knit in stockinette. I would like to maintain that look, so what I decided to do was to knit a couple extra rows, and purl a turning row. Then afterwards, to sew the cuff down. I tried to do this on the first sleeve, but I'm not sure it turned out ok. I'm afraid that the yarn is too bulky to do this method with. What do you folks think?

In other project related news, I finished the Jack Sparrows Favorite Socks


They were made out of Koigu on size 2 addis and will now reside with my roommate.

So to make up for the fact that I needed another sock going (have to have something to do while waiting for things!) I started a Monkey Sock.


I'm also knitting it on a pair of size two addis, but this time it's being knit out of Great Adirondack's Silky Sock in colorway Antique. I really love the feel of the yarn, and I have a feeling that it's going to end up being a strong pair. I'm feeling they could probably be smaller, but I think it'll be ok.

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In completely other news, my friend, after seeing the video for Forever and For Always by Shania Twain, decided his wife needed the sweater in the video. He actually asked me to knit it, for her, and I might actually do it, if I can figure it out. Probably even just for the challenge of it. Here's the video:



Hope that works for you. So I've googled to see if anyone on craftster or anywhere else has already figured this out with no success. Basically, what I think is that the cuffs are knitted. Then, there's a front piece that's knitted from picked up stitches from the cuffs. After that, I'd say there's a piece that's knitted for the back and sewed to the front piece around the bust to make it shirt like. It'd be much thinner than the front piece, and it'd have to be twisted as well.

Does that seem right from what you can see? seems like a rather bulky yarn with a 1x1 slip stitch rib or something.