The Last Knit

Blogless Ruth sent this around last week, and I thought it would be fun to put it up here. I thought it was a really cute animation! To see it bigger, I think you can click on it to go to the YouTube website.

Melodramatic Headline Involving a Bear

NEW YORK, NY SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
Baby Bobbi Bear is in critical condition today after her knitter decided to do a bunch of random things instead of knitting her this weekend. The headless, armless Baby Bobbi Bear (left) was not available for comment yesterday as she has no mouth or head. "The pattern is going smoothly," insists the knitter, Ms. Passionknitly, who has yet to be charged with any serious crime. "I was worried about how to pick up the stitches for the butt, but after reading the pattern notes, I found it was simple." Ms Passionknitly states that she has been quite busy with adventures tied to her 25th birthday which took place September 26th, yet still thinks she should be able to completely finish her work on Baby Bobbi Bear in time for the nascent recipient's baby shower sometime in mid to late October. "I'm actually wondering what the child will be like as I'm knitting this piece. With every stitch I'm wishing it a happy and successful life." Only time will tell how the O'Shea daughter will turn out, while the search for a name for Baby Bobbi Bear continues...

In other news: after having felt a hat made of some Karabella Bulky merino wool, Ms. Passionknitly's brother decided it would be fine to knit with and exclaimed "that's wool!?" His girlfriend was also shocked saying "It feels like cotton!" While Ms. Passionknitly's mother also commended its softness while stating that she would call the brother's allergist to determine if he really is allergic to wool or not. While the jury waits for the final decision (mom's had a rough time with dad who has some sort of internal infection - he'll be fine after a few antibiotics kick in and hasn't had a chance to call the allergist yet), the brother chose a color of Knit Picks Superwash (there's more superwash colors and I thought he would like them more - it may still be wool, but it'll be fine for him. He's decided on Swish Superwash in a beautiful Deep Ocean colorway. As soon as Ms. Passionknitly gets the "all clear" from the allergist, she will order the yarn and the swatching can begin. Ms. Passionknitly expressed her first nervousness regarding the pattern questioning: "Any idea how you swatch for a pattern that big?"

I have a goal!

It's a fairly silly goal, but worth a shot anyway.

I'm going to attempt to knit Baby Bobbi Bear in a weekend. Specifically this weekend. I have quite a bit of time on the bus, and I'm hoping it won't take too long to knit. I bought some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton at Downtown Yarns last week. It's for my friend's baby. I kept thinking of what I could knit for the baby that would be really special. I wanted it to be something that the baby would be able to use years on down the line, not a sweater that it would out-grow in a heartbeat. I didn't want it to be a baby blanket because I feel like they'll probably get a ton of baby blankets. While she'll probably get a lot of stuffed animals, this one will be VERY different. Hopefully I'll be able to not pass out for the WHOLE trip home so I can start it on the bus.

This weekend is also the attempt to placate the brother with merino yarn. Let's hope that goes well too, otherwise this sweater could get ugly...

Congrats to Heather!

Heather's book hits shelves on National Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

We had a little soireé to celebrate the book's publication on saturday and good times were had by all. Unfortunately, I used Jill's camera to take pictures and don't have any of my own.

I do, however, have a picture of the River Rapids Sock I finished while I was there:



I'm using Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in a color called African Grey. I really like what the orange zig zag is doing. It makes my day! I did a different heel than the sock pattern requested. I used the heel from that leaf sock pattern in the Spring Interweave Knits.

I'm also coming along quite well with Icarus



Though I think I'm going to take a break on it for a while so I can get going with this other sock and so I can get something knitted for my friend's baby! The shower is sometime in October, so I would seriously need to get a move on with regards to that project. But it'll be way cute when it's done.

I've found it hard to discuss knitting when I don't have any problems with what I'm knitting. There's just that one issue with the sweater that I hope will be alright soon, and that's about it. My friend did send me a link to this though: Knit Converse sneekers. However interesting, I'm not sure I want to knit them. I think I'm going to try to knit a shawl out of the Brooks Farm I got last year at Rhinebeck. Ravi, who I keep meeting at The Point but don't have her blog address if she has one, knit the Summer Shawlette staff pattern from the Summer IK. It's so adorable, that I was thinking it would work well with that yarn which is so unbelieveably soft.

More proof that I'm insane!

First up, I'll do a progress post later on this week. I've made quite a bit of progress on both the Icarus Shawl and the River Rapids Socks.

Way back in January, my brother decided he wanted me to knit him a sweater. I said alright, and added that he *might* get it by Christmas (I took pains not to mention which Christmas). Originally, I took his measurements and wanted to knit him one from scratch. Having only knitted one sweater before, I thought that this might be a bad idea. So I started the quixotic task of trying to find patterns that he would like and wear and that I wouldn't shoot myself while making. Last weekend while on Cape Cod for my grandfather's 80th birthday party (my brother and I rarely get a chance to see each other) I showed him the Knitting Nature book by Norah Gaughn that I had with me. I needed to fix the straps of the Roundabout Leaf Tank. There are a few sweaters in there for men, and I found that it would be fitting if I did one of the sweaters since my brother lives in Connecticut and Rhode Island and is pretty in touch with nature himself (seeing as how he's looking to get into turf grass management like my dad). My brother found this sweater:
Now, I'm not going to lie. This is an ambitious project, especially ambitious to complete before Christmas. I would need to start this like, NOW. But given that I almost finished the Angie sweater in two weeks, I think this is a possibility. The chart is mad crazy. But I love to cable. I especially like the cables that go on the sides all the way to the back. I think they'll be fun and particularly easy compared with the rest of the sweater.

He thinks he's allergic to wool because it always makes him itchy. I maintain that he just needs to wear a shirt under the wool sweaters he has, but like everyone else in my family, he doesn't think so and doesn't want to find out. So I decided I'd use Knit Picks Main Line in the color Blueberry:


In other crafty news, I'm trying to teach myself how to sew. My grandmother gave my mother one of her old sewing machines and my mother is giving me hers. I'm trying it out this weekend on a jean skirt. I'm recycling a pair of jeans that are beyond their usefulness as jeans and am going to flare it a bit and turn it into an a-line skirt. I'll be trimming the bottom of it with some fabric I found at Purl Patchwork that has been on my mind for quite some time now. I'm pretty excited about it. We'll see how it goes. I'll post my finding sometime soon!

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.