The Tangled Yoke Cardigan Has a Body!

Yuppers!

Sittin pretty:

14.5 inches of Tangled Yoke Cardigan! Save for that tiny glitch with the wording, this whole thing has been quite a walk in the park. I'm hoping I can finish it rather soon since it's felt like spring since January. My office is sporadically chilly, and it'll be great to have a hand knitted cardigan around to keep me warm.

Here, check out some details:


Really, that's about all that's going on. However, I've got a pair of socks on my needles as well, and since I have a ridiculous amount of travel coming up, those should be finished shortly. They're more Noro socks, but I'm trying out the Blue Sky Master Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi's new book. I haven't gotten to anything too crazy, which is bad as far as blog fodder is concerned! At least I have my sanity!

Been Busy

Yup. That about sums her up. I got a new job that I love, but, understandably, is taking more thought than my previous position did. While I was looking for a more creative and thoughtful job, the thinking totally sucks all my energy out, so while I've been knitting (simple things!), I haven't really been blogging.

I did, however, finish a pair of socks!


Here you see them strutting their American Apparel pose. I knit them with some Noro Sock yarn that I picked up at Annie & Co. which is now one of my favorite yarn shops in the city. Just a simple toe up sock with a short row heel. Took about three weeks to a month. I'm not actually as upset about the socks not perfectly matching as i think other people would be. I love the colors. And I still have enough to maybe even squeeze a new pair out of what's left (these socks are pretty short).

No more progress on the TYC. It's still looking much like this:


It's actually just a smidge longer. I found an issue with the pattern, or with the way I was reading the pattern that meant I was omitting about seven rows. So I had to take back a bit, and I decided while I was at it that I'd tack on another inch to the bottom. I just started the stockinette portion (literally, I'm two rows in).

Other than that, I'm working on a needle point of a Koi.

Don't things here seem boring when I'm not working on a Melanie Falick pattern?

To create a bit of knitting drama I thought I'd start doing a sock from Cat Bordhi's new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I'm going to start with the Sky Master Pattern and see where I can go from there. I don't usually swatch, so I actually used the Noro Socks I just finished as good swatches.

So, I will try posting more than once a month...really I will. You know how it goes though, and with Ravelry, I just haven't felt like my blog is necessary anymore except to maybe document issues I'm having with a pattern. And I really haven't been having any issues with any patterns yet. But we'll work on that here chez PassionKNITly...and more than likely not consciously either. :)

Post X-mas haze

Yup. Haze. I have NO WIPs.

Read that again, just to make sure. No WIPs.

I finished Christmas knitting - in time for Christmas even! Check out these awesome mittens I made for my roommate


She had the scarf. The project was to match the mittens to the scarf. I think I did a pretty good job. The mittens are a little brighter than the scarf, but I think that normal wear and tear in the city will dull the colors so that they're both the same dirty color. So I finished those while I was in Rhode Island for Christmas.

I also finished the monkey socks...sorta


My monkies were the last FO of 2007. Which is actually pretty hot. I think i botched the kitchenering on the toe of one of them though, so I have to go over that with some extra yarn and close up the hole. I really LOVED this yarn, the Great Adirondack's Silky Sock.

I'm currently seaming together a ginormous afghan for a friend. Her friend had crocheted her this blanket years ago but it's coming apart at the seams. I told her that for Christmas I'd seam it together for her. It's proving to be a rather large task.

But I should still have a pair of socks in the works right? Well, I thought I'd pick up the Over the Knee Stockings from 2006. I untangled the yarn and looked at them. Sternly. I will not be beaten by a mere pair of socks, no matter how tall they may be. After looking at them sternly, I realized that I need to add about three more repeats to the length of the stocking to get roughly the same ratio of over the knee ness. This means that I suddenly might not have enough yarn. While I like the yarn I chose for these, there's no way in hell they'd stay up. I'm thinking of changing to a koigu, Louet Gems or something different. So I think I'm heading up to Annie's on Saturday afternoon...just so you know. Come hang, give some moral support, and knit with me.

Feels good to kick those damn things out of the zzzz pile.

Also, I found this hot site on the web that's trying to be a Suicide Girls for knitters. Cool thing is that they've got some tat shots up there, and my tattoo is the icon for the links to knitting tattoos!! :D After looking at the site a bit, it really makes me want to be a Knit Girl! Go check it out: http://www.badknitgirls.com.

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2007 in Stitches

Here's what I managed to complete in 2007!

• A Stripey Mohair Scarf knit out of Bee Sweet


• Mountain colors Jaywalkers


• Reflection Aran Pullover for my brother


• Uptown Boot Socks thanks to Jury duty


• Wedgewood Blouse too bad it didn't fit


• Rhode Island Red Socks STR yarn from Some Bunny's Love


• Coachella


• Clapotis next time I want to do this, remind me not to


• Icarus


• Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks


• Berkshire Pullover from Weekend Knits


• Twinkle's Skating Sweater


• 4 Basketweave Plaemats for Bess and Jeff


• Sparkle Hat 2.0


• Ann's Midnight Dot Mittens


• Colorful Monkey Socks

Not to shabby. 17 projects overall. I think that's more than last year! It was a good yarn year.

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!