Life, etc.

Hello all!

I don't have a lot of time to write blog posts, what with all of the homework and stuff I've had lately, so this won't really be a full post. Just thought I'd update a bit in the meantime.

For the kool-aid dyed yarn, I've decided not to do any of the possible ideas I had last post. You know, just to shake things up. No, really it's just because I tried a few of them out and didn't really like any of them. For a first lace project, the branching leaves pattern was just too difficult, at least for me (don't laugh, lace knitters) and I got frustrated VERY quickly. The very first row had types of decreases that I'd never heard of before. And after working a swatch of about 1/2 of a repeat, I had already had to rip back so many times that I had to restrain myself from flinging the whole thing across the room. If I can't handle 1/2 a repeat of the lace pattern, I sure as HELL wasn't going to attempt a whole shawl. I still think it's a very pretty scarf, but I'll probably come back to it much later, after I'm more experienced with knitting lace.

So, it was basically back to the drawing board. Or in this case, back to Ravelry pattern search.

In the end, I decided on the Seascape wrap from Knitty. It looked fairly straightforward, I could understand all of the charts without having too look anything up, and there are good sized patches of stockinette that make the lace pattern look a whole lot less daunting. Not to mention the fact that it is GORGEOUS. I'd admired the pattern when it first came out (Summer '08 issue of Knitty), but just in a wow-that's-awesome-but-i'd-never-knit-that kind of way.

So anyway, I started the pattern, and I'd like to say that this is probably a perfect first lace project. The first thing that you knit is a simple border with basically just knit stitches and YOs in a repetitive sequence. It's a great introduction to reading a chart and dealing with laceweight yarn because it's easy, and every row is the same. Fantastic! Then, once you get past the border section, the wavy pattern is pretty much just the same sequence of stitches, but with more space in between and an extra increase or decrease here and there. It's easy to understand why the lace pattern works the way it does. I mean, it's not just blindly following a chart, the mechanics of it actually make a lot of sense.

I've knitted about six inches, impressive progress for about three days of work, if I do say so myself! (it's actually been about 2 weeks, but I only have time to work on it on weekends). I'll put up a progress picture when the lace pattern takes shape a little more. Right now, you can't quite see the swirls yet.

Would you look at that, this turned into a pretty decent-sized post. Huh.

Frustration

I wrote in my last post about trying to knit/crochet a shawl for prom. I even picked out a sort of fishnet lace crochet stitch pattern for it. I crocheted a couple of inches in this stitch pattern when I realized...I really don't like it. It looks too....cheap. I don't know, just somehow it reminds me of a string bag or something. Not glamorous and elegant and prom-like.


So, I've been looking for other lacey shawl patterns on Ravelry. I'm thinking of making this pattern from Knitty, just making it wider and longer. That's really a last resort pattern, because I think the yarn I'm using would do better in a more classical lace pattern. I'm also thinking about one of those dragon scale-looking lace stitch patterns. I like those, and I think I have an afghan pattern around here somewhere that I can adapt. There's also a leafy lace pattern called branching out that I think would look gorgeous if I knit about 2 or 3 side by side. Especially since the yarn is green and would look terriffic as leaves.


Two problems, though.


1) It needs to be relatively fast to knit/crochet. I've only got until April 25th to have this DONE. And this is working around the intense workload I've got at school right now.
2) I've never knitted lace before. I have never even worked with yarn this thin before. The pattern needs to be simple enough that even a beginner like me can do it with no problem.


Not to mention the fact that I have to actually LIKE it...


Ideas? Suggestions? All are welcome!

Pictures!

Hey hey!

It's been a while. Yeah, i've been busy, then was out of town, then was really sick for a few days, but all that is behind us now. Because I'M BACK, and I come bearing gifts! Well, photos, but I so rarely add photos to my posts (it's a pain in the...ahem...rear end with blogger) so the addition of photos is exciting, and just as good as a gift! (just nod your heads and humor me, people)

First of all, I'm going to prom this year, and I really wanted to feature something handmade in my prom wardrobe. So, I bought some Knitpicks Gloss, a laceweight merino wool/silk blend yarn from knitpicks.com, to make a sort of a stole/wrap thing. The yarn is super soft, and so affordable!

Well, I wasn't really a fan of any of the colors that the yarn is sold in, so I bought 4 skeins of the bare (undyed) yarn to dye with Kool-Aid! I chose the Lemon-Lime flavor, and dyed it Monday while I was staying home sick (i had...and still have...a really bad cold. yuck.)

Here is the result:

It was a whole lot of fun to dye! After it was done and hanging to dry, it took considerable self control to LEAVE IT ALONE and not try to do anything with it while it was wet. It's just so pretty!!!

Here is the makeshift swift that I used to wind the yarn into a ball:

(By the way, the fabulous chairs were hand-painted by my mom! Check out her etsy site at maryjostudio.etsy.com)

And here is a shot of my ball winder with about half of a skein already wound:

I am in LOVE with my ball winder! It makes jobs like this so easy!

And because I am already adding a bunch of pictures, here's one of my cat, Stormy Llewellyn, asleep on a straw hat:

Awwww!

And finally, I leave you with the challenge of the day. What is this picture a close up of?

First one to guess it right gets a prize!

Hat update

I finished the earflap hat! And I modified the hell out of it!

Yep, that old urge to mess with the pattern struck again. I went with the two white stripes! And I only really followed the pattern as far as the crown of the hat and the front flap. I totally omitted the back flap and for the earflaps I ignored what it told me to do, went down a few hook sizes, just used one strand of yarn, and made them a lot smaller. Then, when I crocheted the "fur" lining, I realized that it would look great as one of those russian type hats (What are they actually called? All I know is that the girl in Balto got one like it as a present...). So I flipped the earflaps up and tied them. So basically, the finished hat looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like it was supposed to. I do like it, though.

Only one problem: The hat is waaay too big for me. It doesn't really stay on my head. It doesn't even fit my brother (a.k.a Owen of the Gigantous Noggin). But there is NO WAY i'm undoing the hat to fix it. So whatever.

I'll post a picture as soon as I get a good one!

Dilemma

So, I am currently crocheting this hat from the newest issue of "Crochet Today" (a really cool magazine):

But I changed the brown to navy blue, mostly because the brown I had looked yellow and sickly with the white trim. Well anyway, I have the crown of the hat done, but I'm afraid that I will run out of the blue yarn. So I was thinking about striping the rest of it to conserve yarn. What do you think of this:

(MS Paint - looks real professional, doesn't it?)

Do the stripes look good, or stupid? I can't decide.

New Knitty Issue!

I've always been a huge fan of Knitty, an online knitting magazine with tons of free patterns, but the most recent issue (Winter '08), they have really outdone themselves!

I realized earlier this afternoon that I hadn't checked to see if the new issue was out yet. When I went to the website, I was immediately blown away by some of the patterns! Never before have I seen so many in an issue that I MUST KNIT right away!

My favorites of the issue (there are a lot of them!):

Amused, a raglan sweater with a huge cabled collar, 3/4 sleeves, and ribbed bottom and cuffs (This one is definitely my favorite of the issue. It's gorgeous!)

A little bird told me, a felted purse with an adorable embroidered bird

Fish hat, a hat shaped like a fish. Because who doesn't want a hat that's eating your head? Adorable!

Miitens, mitts for babies shaped like Mii hands (you know, the little people on the Nintendo Wii)

Oomingmacks, slippers shaped like musk oxen. I never realized until today how much I need slippers shaped like musk oxen. (Is that the plural of 'ox'? I wasn't sure.)

Socktopus, a toy octopus wearing 8 different socks

Amelia, an incredibly cute cardigan

and finally Maja, a shawl using a fascinating crossed stitch pattern

I really need to finish up all of my current UFOs (in non-knitter lingo, un-finished objects) so that I can start on that Amused sweater. Because I MUST HAVE THAT SWEATER! It's so pretty!!! I also really want to make a fish hat for myself and for my brother, and my mom would really love that shawl!

I've got to go get knitting!

Finally, I'm back...

...With a brand new computer!!! OMG!

I haven't been able to post in a super long time because I have had some crazy computer problems recently. All of our old computers had crashed at some time or another, so they were all moderately "injured", but suddenly all three of them decided to just die on us.

Okay, it wasn't all at one time...It was more like one died, then we were trying to fix it and another died, then we tried to take them apart and mess around in there, so we got them both up, and one of them was working properly, just like new, but the other one had a damaged keyboard driver, so you couldn't type anything. We spent several days where all we could do to type stuff was copy and paste individual words or letters from Wikipedia. Anyway, so we had two working computers and one useless one, so we ordered new parts for the broken one, but the new motherboard didn't fit in the old one's CPU case, so we decided, lets put it in the other one's CPU case (one of the working ones, the one that had died a few days before, but had been repaired). Well anyway, that didn't work, and when we were trying to put the other one back together, a wire on the inside broke, so it wouldn't even start up.

ANYWAY, we were stuck with only one working computer, in a family where one member spends literally all his free time on Facebook and IM (my brother), another member relies on the internet for her business (my mom sells her painted furniture online, maryjostudio.etsy.com) and yet another member has a million essays and stuff to write and spends almost everyday doing homework on the computer until like 9:30 (that's me). Needless to say, it was not a good situation. So anyway, I thought my mom was just going to order new parts for the old computer, but when I got home from school yesterday, here was this brand new PC sitting on the computer desk and my mom looking sheepish.

So, now we have this super cool, super fast, super awesome new computer, and I can actually blog again! Yay!

So, how was everyone's [Insert whatever holiday you celebrate here]?