Flash Me!

For various reasons, Stan and I have been having stash conversations recently. I'm sure you've all been there at some point. You have too much yarn, or you haven't been knitting enough of the yarn that you've got or something along those lines to make your significant other question the amount of yarn you've got. Stan, I think, has a hard time grasping the yarn collection aspect of my hobby because he doesn't collect anything himself.

Until recently, Stan thought my entire stash fit in a milk crate between my roommate's room and mine. He has since been assured that such a divine spot in front of the TV is used only for pretty yarn (and that I actually do stare at it often), and there is quite a bit more yarn under a chair behind the TV (he didn't even know there was a chair behind the TV). He thinks (probably rightly so) that I have way more yarn than I could ever knit. And the stash has come up for some spatial concerns as well.

I've decided that I really should go through the stash. I need to photograph it all and list it all on Ravelry. Random leftover balls (but not remnants from socks that are lying around for mending) and all. Regardless, there will be one glory shot of it all together (if I can fit it in with my wide angle lens!). I might even look to part with some of it. Maybe.

I pose it to you, what's left of my dear readers: Flash Your Stash 2009! I think it would be way fun to put the size of my stash in perspective. Take a photo of your stash all together! Show me how much you've got! Slap it on your blog, then drop a comment to this post with a link. I'm giving all of us (myself included!) until January 1, 2010 to photograph and list it all.

I'm contemplating making this interesting by adding in a yarny incentive, but I'm going to hold off on that in the event I find that I can't part with my sock yarn. I'll figure it out and post something either way soon.

Halvsies Pattern on Ravelry!

Since my Halvsies pattern wasn't accepted by Berroco for their contest, I'm publishing it on my own, with Ravelry's help! click on the link below to download it!


Ravelry says that you can use that link to download the pattern even if you don't have a Ravelry account. Though, the Ravelry link for the pattern is here

I'll remind you as to what the Halvsies look like with a couple of glamor shots:





If you remember, I knit these last year for my brother's girlfriend. She loves them, and I wanted a pair to wear at work. I knit a pair out of Berocco Sox Metallic for their contest, but didn't manage to make it to the voting part. Now, I want to knit another pair so I can have a pair at work still! They're knit from the toe up to the heel and bound off loosely with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pattern, and if you have any issues, drop me a line on Ravelry!

Rhinebeck Tank Sundress

Where have I been? Well, most of late August and Early September were in preparation for this:


Clicking on that will take you to a nifty slide show.
Stan and I went to Hawaii. It was utterly amazing and if you ever get the chance to go, you certainly should! They're not kidding, it truly is paradise.

You may remember right before I left a couple of posts on the sizing of a tank top. I'd like to show you the results, if I may:


From the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting, this is pattern number 25. I knit it up with Handmaiden Double Sea Silk on size 6 needles for the most part. Funner details can be found on Ravelry. I did end up knitting the size 36 and it fits PERFECTLY. I might have done with another set of smaller bust darts, but it does fit fine and dandy. You'll also notice it's a better photo of the hat that I made at Illanna's that one time.

Also making it's debut in Hawaii was a dandy new sundress I sewed up from a Heather Ross pattern:


I just love the pattern on this fabric. It's Marcus Brothers from their Rainbow Gardens design line called Pink Paisley Garden 1139-0126. I fell in love and purchased it at Purl Patchwork.

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So those are new FOs. I regret to inform everyone that I won't actually be making it to Rhinebeck this year. I was really looking forward to it, but it's not going to happen this year. My stash is already massive, so it'll survive and I think it will only make things better for next year. If someone wants to pick up some beautiful Briar Rose for me though, rest assured that I'd find a way to get some dollars to you for it!

The reason I can't go is actually quite a joyous one. My little brother recently got engaged to his girlfriend! While they don't have a date exactly yet, they're thinking it will happen April or May of 2011. We're all super excited for them, and their engagement party is the Saturday of Rhinebeck. So while I'm bummed I'm missing Rhinebeck, I really couldn't have asked for a better reason to miss it!

Now accepting interesting ideas for knitted wedding gifts. I really want to knit her a garter, I don't know why, I just do. So if you come across any interesting patterns for garters, drop me a line. I found one on Ravelry, that I've added to my queue, but if anyone finds another one that's equally interesting, let me know!

Continous Cables Disaster

So, I don't have any photos to share, but I will say that I'm having serious issues with the Fireside Afghan I'm knitting for a friend. Row 12 seems to be quite wonky and it seems as though there are some places where stitches are being increased, but there's no mark to let you know to increase there. It's all rather frustrating.

Anyway, does anyone have time to check this chart out and to confirm my sanity?

Help!

A Bit More Time

So, Illanna came up with a great idea to put the side I've half completed on a holder to try the second size for the other side. I'm so ready to do that! Except that I'm at Stan's in Staten Island and the tips for my interchangeable needle set are still in my apartment in Brooklyn and I will need tips 2 sizes smaller for the ribbing at the bottom. Now, this is not a long term problem. I also forgot my camera for our trip to Boston so we're picking that up on out way. It's just going to be tough tonight since I don't have another project with me to work on!! My computer's also in Brooklyn and Stan's computer is locked so looks like I'm going to get a LOT of TV time in.

Sigh.

Time Sensitive Question...

I need a bit of help here...

Pattern link in Ravelry

I’m seriously wondering if I’m knitting the right size. I’ve got a 41” bust, so I thought I’d knit the large in a size 39” bust. I’m halfway done with the back, but I’m thinking it’s going to be too big. So now I’m wondering if I should knit the next size down. Which is to fit a 36” bust. I figure that if I give it bust darts, it might not matter…

I've looked at a few of my store bought wife beaters. They're also made of cotton, but they stretch a LOT (one was 13" wide where it would hit my hips!). I feel like if this knit stretched too much it'd be a bit indecent. But 3"...that'll make a difference, probably for the better right?

I've got about half the back done, but I did it in like three days. If I knit less stitches, I can probably get back (get the pun!?) to where I am now by Saturday.

This yarn was kind of expensive and is a dream to work with. All the same, I don't like re-knitting things, so once it gets finished, I'm not going to go rip it and give the pattern another go. So, what do you think I should do, folks?

A) Forge ahead
B) Rip it already and knit a size you think will fit better before you lose momentum!
C) Didn't you want to knit a shawl?

Thanks folks! I'm probably going to try to work on it more tomorrow night when I'm at Stan's by myself. We're trekking up to Boston, and it's easier to just head straight to Staten Island versus him picking me up at 4am when he gets out of work.

Bust Darts

Oh wow. I have a blog! Hello blogosphere! I am terribly sorry for having forgotten you. I've been somewhat busy. Hope you're prepared for a long blog post...I'm ready to eat your lunchtime up! I know from the top that this post looks identical to the last post, trust me, it's different.

I had a great crafting weekend about a month ago with Illanna. She showed me the gift I gave her for her wedding. It's hanging across from their bed, which I think I kind of special! I got to take a much better photo of it...with like stitch definition and everything!


One of us had a bit of trouble winding our bobbin (uhm, I'd only threaded a bobbin once on my machine, and had completely forgotten how to do so - I've since reminded myself), but once we got through a bit of that trouble we were mostly ok. We sewed hats! Here's mine:


The fabric is some sort of disco circle something or other according to Illanna (that was such a half assed description eh?). I got it at Brooklyn General and kind of fell in love with it. We couldn't sew the whole weekend though. That would be crazy. So we visited Ridgewood Needlepoint since I've been doing a bit more of that recently. I had been waiting for a flag canvas to come my way from Annie & Company, and I wanted to stitch something while I was waiting for it. So I bought a belt at Ridgepoint Needlepoint. I've got to be honest though, I haven't even started it yet. It's a pretty cool pattern though. It's chocolate brown and a nice pastel teal color. A combination I happen to totally love.

Illanna's a bad influence. We've known this for a while. So, even though I'd spent a decent chunk of change at the needlepoint store, she brought me to Yarn Diva & More, her favorite LYS in Hillsdale. This range of yarns at this place is amazing! From acrylic to silks and cashmeres, Pattons and Berocco to Handmaiden and Tilli Thomas, the place was ceiling to floor filled with yarn! They barely had any books because, Illanna told me, they have so much yarn that they want to display! We're friends on Ravelry, this yarn store and I. It's really too bad that all these awesome stores are far away from me! The owner of Yarn Diva and her daughter are amazing people, so friendly! It was one of the few places you can walk into for the first time and feel completely welcome. As Illanna pondered what colors of Malabrigo she was going to get, she pointed me in the direction of the handmaiden silk (I told you she was a bad influence, you've had your warning!). I had to, of course, wipe them out of a color:


There's a really great tank top from the spring 2009 Vogue knitting I intend to knit it into. Hopefully soon. It's a really simple pattern, almost wife-beater esque. I'm seriuosly hoping I can bang it out with only 5 skeins. We'll see. I'm now taking bets....

While I was on the floor staring at the Handmaiden Sea Silk, however, I saw this beauty just lying there in a bookshelf, and thought it looked pretty lonely. So I decided to adopt it:


It's a laceweight yarn by a company called Prism. It's going to be such a gorgeous lace shawl, I almost can't wait to knit it up (but I have to knit that Briar Rose stuff first because it's been beckoning to me from the stash for longer!)!

I finished a pair of socks that weekend as well. Beth had given me some Schaefer Yarns Heather sock yarn to play with for my birthday last year. It took me a while to figure out what to do with it and exactly what pattern it wanted to be. I finally settled on the Primavera sock pattern (Ravelry Link).



I knit it on size 0s, which was probably not necessary, but they'll be amazingly warm. That weekend was so amazing that I really can't believe it was so long ago and that I'm going to have to wait soooo long for the next one!! All the sewing and knitting and crafty store goodness and awesome food (Illanna's a great cook!) and hooping! I'm like booked solid through October now, because I'm crazy. Sick thing is that I can tell you what I'm doing each weekend - and yes, there is plenty of time for knitting.

I have also been sewing and needlepointing, however. A few weeks ago, I took a class with Heather Ross author of Weekend Sewing (a great book if you haven't checked it out yet) at Purl Patchwork. That was a linkfull wasn't it? She taught us how to make her Smocked Sundress. The folks that took the class were pretty good (one of them was a mega-marathon runner who was going to run a 100 mile race that weekend!). While I didn't have my awesome camera, I did have my crappy iPhone camera, and here's the shot I got of all of us in our respective sundresses:


I love wearing this dress, even though I have to be careful of it falling! The fabric is really cool and very me. It's so cool to know that I made it all myself, and it was so incredibly easy to make! I even hemmed it myself (which was a bit of a challenge, but I got through it)! It hits just above my knee. I'm planning on making another for when Stan and I go to Hawaii, and a different type of sundress that I'll take from Heather's book to sew.

Ravi took me to The Eduardian for a bit of needlepoint a couple of weeks ago. The owner of that store was totally amazing. I don't think she even charged me for a lesson on how to lay threads. I'm practicing that a bit on a blank canvas (!!??) that I'm stitching as a headband. I think it looks pretty good so far:


It's just a simple chevron pattern, but I wear all three of those colors quite often, so I think it'll be quite wearable.

All I did this weekend was knit. I met up with my friend Nancy from work at Knitty City on Friday. I was particularly surprised that Pearl remembered my name. There's so many people that frequent that shop, and I come in so rarely, she must have some sort of magical way of knowing it! As infrequently as I go to that shop, it really is one of my favorites. I walked in and told myself self, you're not to buy any yarn. We need size 7 dpns, so you're allowed those, and I guess those new Norah Gaughan books will be ok. Fine...add in the new Jared Flood book from Classic Elite. But that's IT!. I took a hard look at myself, and did just what I told myself. Then I sat down, and knit.

Someday, I'll remember to write down the notes I make to myself when I create bust darts. Hopefully, I'll do it with this shirt, so I don't forget for next time. I put Morocco (it's a sublime pattern - ravelry link) down for quite a bit because the bust darts were making me a bit nervous. I wasn't sure exactly how to do them, and I didn't have any information on how I'd done bust darts before, but I knew this pattern needed it. Once I sat down to knit at Knitty City, though, for some reason I felt really confident. Maybe it was just that I was knitting around a TON of knitters, maybe it's because Knitty City is the friendliest place on earth. Whatever it was, it made me feel like there was a huge safety net and that I should just go for it! Which I did. A bit too early, actually. I started in on my short rows, and when I measured the back after I had done them to find out how much more I had to knit, I found out too quickly that I needed to actually start 2" later than I did. So out it all came, and I re-did it. There was a lot of knitting with the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk this weekend. Probably too much.

For the first time since I really started knitting, my hands are KILLING me. To the point where it's actually hurting me to write this post almost. I really want to keep knitting tonight though. While I pop a couple of Moltrins, check out the yarn I ended up getting on Friday at Knitty City (really, did you think I was going to be placated by knitting books?).


I have no idea what this colorway is called, but it's quite pretty. I know it's sock yarn, but I really don't think I've bought any sock yarn all year, I'm allowed to slip up every now and again. Or think of it as my consolation prize for not being able to go to Rhinebeck this year. I can't explain yet why I can't go, I just can't, but I think that means that the year after will be just that much better.

In other news, look out on the Berocco newsletters for voting on their sock contest. I think the voting starts on September 25th or so. I entered a pair into the mix, and I really hope they like them. If they don't publish them, I'll probably whip them up into a pdf and publish it myself on Ravelry.

Well, is your lunch break over? If not, I think you should just knit for a bit until it is. I'm going to watch some Adult Swim and let those Moltrins take my pain away so I can knit again.