Mymymymyy Corona

That song gets stuck in my head every single time I thought about or picked up this project. I used just under four skeins of Cascade 220, making it just barely count for the Loopy Ewe project. To count, it needed to be 800 yards or more, and I made it. I think that it would have looked better in a larger size for the body up through the "v", but I love how the arms fit, the collar works very well, and I absolutely adore the sleeves and everything about it from the "v" up. I don't always like how raglan sleeves look and fit, but these are absolutely perfect and I think I will use this as a raglan example in the future. Love it!

I'm not in love with either the color or the feel of the yarn, but I'm not all that upset either. It will be a good sweater for fall and unless I finish another sweater soon, people may get sick of seeing me in it!

Pattern: My Corona (Ravelry) 

Yarn: Cascade 220 in 7178 Blue Velvet

Needles: US8/5.0mm

Timeframe: August 16 - 31, 2011

Mods: Lengthened the sleeves, raised the collar, changed the hood into a complete collar, made the increases/decreases matching, more details here.

Problems: Nothing really, just wish I'd've knit the lower body a bit larger than I did. Though if I had and kept the larger size through the top, I wouldn't be as happy with the collar and shoulders, so I can't complain too much!

Oops

I'm knitting potholders. I knit one for a housewarming party, another for a different friend, and I'm planning to knit a total of five for Christmas gifts. To make these, you make two centers, in my case, each in a different color, and instead of breaking the yarn for the back one, use it to connect the two sides along the edges, in along the "petals", and around the center. This only works if you have the same number of petals for both pieces:

If the back side has 13 petals and the front side has the correct 14 petals, you are screwed. Even more so if you don't realize this fact until you get down to the last petal or two. As the Yarn Harlot says, more experienced knitters don't make fewer mistakes, they just make larger mistakes faster. I've done eight of these, stopped counting petals after the first one or two, and obviously, that was a mistake.

Now this potholder will be going into time out while I make the yellow pieces for another two potholders, and then I'll come back to fix it. Grumblegrumblegrumble. I was hoping to have all of Lee's family's Christmas knitting done by his birthday on Friday, but with this potholder setback, that may or may not happen. Grrrrr, stupid potholder and stupid crocheter for not counting the stupid number of petals on the stupid blue one!

Walking and Knitting

Still working on the Christmas presents. Still wanting to knit things that are not Christmas presents. Sigh.

Really, it's not that bad. I'm loving one of the illusion knits I'm working on, the keychains are quick and adorable, and I just started a baby sweater that is flying off the needles. It's just the scarf that is, like many scarves, long and boring, and it has a pattern that is just complex enough to have me checking the pattern all the time so it's not mindless, and just boring enough that the fact that I have to look at the pattern annoys me. It has been my carry-along project, but I've been not really knitting on it, just carrying it around recently due to project boredom:

Want to make people look at you like you're crazy? Knit a scarf like this one that is ostensibly a simple striped pattern, and then go to check the pattern and count stitches. I found the confusion to be quite amusing! It's another illusion scarf, the last of four I'm knitting for Christmas, and rather than motoring through because the end (of the scarves at least) is in sight, I'm just about halfway done and dawdling.

In order to make better progress on the Christmas front, I've switched up to a nice little DK weight baby sweater for my nephew, and it's really coming along quickly:

One sleeve done (instead of swatching, I start the sleeve and rip it out if it isn't working), and the body over 2" so far. That's really good because I had the sleeve plus the first row of the body done this morning and only worked on it while walking around today. Hopefully the quick sweater will give me the boost I need to enjoy working on the scarf again, or at least get me motivated to finish it!

A note on the bags - a supermarket just opened near us and gave away these cute little bags for their opening weekend. I got two, and love how they have a little pocket that's perfect for my iPod and fit a carry-along knitting project nicely. My typical bag is suffering from a broken zipper pull, so these bags have come in handy. They say "refill our green earth" and I'm not exactly sure what they're going for there, but I do like the bags!

Distracted Knitting

I keep looking at all my other yarns and wanting to knit things that I should not knit until the Christmas things are done. Getting things done early is a good thing! Just because it's not yet Christmas time doesn't mean I should hold off on that knitting! In fact, if I finish the Christmas stuff, I can cast on ALL THE THINGS and knit whatever the heck I want for however long I want! Or so I keep telling myself, as I continue to look over at the pile of yarns already paired with season-appropriate patterns. Sigh.

Since I can't seem to buckle down and just FINISH STUFF ALREADY, even the small crochet things I'm mostly done with, I decided to just go ahead and cast on all of the Christmas things I have open needles for. This way I can switch up to a different pattern if I'm bored or restless but am still moving forward on deadline crafting. So many things I want to knit, so little time to do so!

And completely apropos to this post, I started it a week ago and didn't post it because I wanted to get some pictures, but never did. I am now on a finishing jag, which started with this skirt:

Made from a recycled Happi Coat, from a kimono recycle shop/secondhand store. Today, I'll be finishing some small-ish things, though most of the things on the needles are not in that category. Just the crochet/sewing stuff. In fact, judging by the progress I've been making with one of the Christmas presents, I am now somewhat worried that I either won't have enough yarn to finish or I won't finish them all for Christmas, and I was doing fairly well on that front! Ah well, I'll just keep going and see where that gets me.

Love this skirt!

September

Why yes, it has been a bit since I've last posted. I had friends over, work stuff, and just haven't photographed things much, though I have been burning through some Christmas knitting. I may, just may, have all of the Christmas gifts ready to go in time to be shipped back to the US for Christmas rather than New Year's or later! Amazing!

Of course, I finished knitting a pair of socks on October 1, rather than during September, but I still have a downward trend going on and now a nice head start on a downward trend for October too with that pair done. See:





I am itching to knit a couple of sweaters and sweater vests for myself. Christmas first, then selfish knitting!

Blahhh

I  seem to be lacking the ability to do those last little finishing touches that actually complete a project. Two projects have been sitting around since August just needing to be washed, joined recently by a third. Three shirts just need buttons, though I put them on one this morning to wear to work. And of course, instead of finishing up that stuff or sewing up the fabric that's been cut already, I start something completely new, thinking it would be a fast finish. Which it will be, a simple skirt with only five pieces, one of which is interfacing, but then it was time for dinner and not too long after that, bed, so it's still sitting on the sewing table rather than in my closet. It will look amazing with a shirt that is still in uncut fabric form, waiting for its turn for the cutting board. Sigh. I'd better get on that!

I also managed to destroy a brand-new worn only once shirt because apparently I did not pre-wash the fabric and it shrunk. I can still wear it, but now it's a belly shirt. Which I should probably not wear. Wharrrrrrrgarble!

Biscuit Blanket (with Bread) and a Topflappen

I made this awhile back, for a Thanksgiving party, and never actually photographed it in use. It's much prettier when used rather than lying flat like a sad little blanket. I had a housewarming party to go to and decided to make a walnut bread (Joy of Cooking's Nut Bread) and this was the perfect way to transport it. I even managed to remember to take pictures of it before I left!

Pattern: Biscuit Blanket (Ravelry)

Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Naturals

Needles: US7/4.5mm

Timeframe: November 8 - December 12, 2010

Mods: None - nice pattern!

Problems: None!

 

In addition to finally photographing the Biscuit Blanket, I made a potholder (Topflappen in German) as a housewarming gift. Originally, I had wanted to do two, using the same colors but switching the main and contrast colors,  but ran out of time when I had one center bit of each color done. They are small and quick projects, but very few projects are small and quick enough to start the project, experiment with it, rip one mostly-finished center, and then re-do on the same day, especially with the number of times I had to rip back because I missed an increase on the row below or somesuch. I don't crochet all that often. I will be making a few of these for Christmas, so it was a good excuse to test out the pattern and use up some available yarn. When friends left Japan this past summer, I was given a pile of yarn including a bunch of DMC Senso. I haven't put it into my stash because some are partially used and they have large cardboard bobbins in the middle making it difficult to weigh how much yarn there is, but they are great for potholders! I did a bit of Facebook snooping to see what colors could match my friend's kitchen, and upon finding a couple of kitchen implements in lime green, decided that of my available colors, orange and green should work:

Pattern: Gehaekelte Topflappen (Rav)
Yarn: DMC Senso Microfiber Cotton

Hook: 3.25mm/USD
Timeframe: September 3, 2011.
Mods: I made a 14 petal flower and went around the center with the contrast color too.
Problems: Not really problems so much as figuring out which translations/modifications I wanted to use! Final pattern I used is here.