Ways to Come Home

It’s been several months since I last updated this, and I have a somewhat decent excuse for it. I went back to school and started working all the time shortly after my last post.

My Ravelympic sweater was finished, but I have some alterations I really want to make to it before I actually consider it 100% finished. It didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped it would, but I am still happy that I put it together so quickly.

Shortly after the semester started, I came up with a couple of different patterns. The one that I am the absolute happiest with is my Stealing Cable beret, which is a slouchy-if-you-want beret created over a few different hats. I’m going to put the pattern out for use as soon as I can get a few different test knitters to make sure that it works for them as well.

I didn’t do much knitting after I had squared the patterns away. Carpal tunnel and work got in the way, and so I had to slow down significantly. I did work my way through a plain orange hat for a friend of mine. The next object that I’ve really finished was a pair of Knucks for a friend of mine. I had tried to make a pair for a different friend, but his hands were too big and I couldn’t handle figuring out how to change it, so I moved to the next person on my list.

After that, I worked on a plain 1×1 rib scarf that I don’t really have any pictures of, and that is that. I am trying to motivate myself to work on something else (and those gloves for my best friend!). I have also considered putting together a small etsy store to make some hats and a few extra dollars. I’ll see where things take me!

Ravelympic Update

Worked a bit more on my sweater the past few days and also managed to find a new set of buttons! I don’t know if I’ll need all of them, but I wanted to make sure. Too many is better than too few, right?

I decided to go with a cardigan instead of a regular sweater, and I think I am sort of regretting it. It might be too small, I’ll see about that when the button band is added at the end. At least I know I’ll have enough yarn for the arms and all of that.

The yarn is old Sears Knitting Worsted wool, received as part of a nice box of yarn from a fellow Raveler. It’s my first time knitting with what I guess is pure wool (even though the burn test suggests maybe not completely). I’m really excited, and also feeling a bit spoiled. I’m liking it so far!

Ravelympics 2008

I haven’t written much, I keep forgetting I have this stupid blog. But I have some time to spare, so I thought I’d go through a quick update of some finished objects and then just what I’m working on.

I still haven’t finished Bad Ripples. I do a few rows every now and then, but I still have another repeat or two to go before the blanket is finished. I might finish it this week so that I can bring the finished project with me to school and not have to worry about lugging all of the yarn… even though I’ll probably bring the yarn with me anyhow. No new progress shots of it, though.

Other than that, I made a pair of fingerless mitts. One has the EZLN logo on it, the other has a red star stitched on the middle. I love them, they are comfy (Caron simply soft, nothing special). I just made one bigger than the other to cover my carpal tunnel brace if I need it.

I took this before I did the star on the right hand one. If you are curious, the EZLN is the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. They are a very inspirational group of people, a very wonderful social movement based in Chiapas, Mexico.

Finally, I have my sweater for the Ravelympics! I’m knitting in the Freestyle for All for Team CESOB! Wooo, go CESOB! I’m going verrrry slow unfortunately, and I need to pick up the pace big time. I’m doing another top-down raglan, improvising the pattern as I go along. I haven’t decided if it’s going to be a cardigan or regular sweater. It’s a deep-V, though. I’ll try to get a better progress shot than I have tomorrow.

Back to it

Ooops, I kind of lost focus after that last post. I took a break to work heavily on summer sessions of school. I did a lot more work on my Bad Ripples blanket:

Bad Ripples

Unfortunately, I kept running out of specific yarns, so I had to stop working on it. It was entirely too frustrating to have to gauge how much I had left, and if it was enough for an entire two rows. I think that just another repeat or two will finish it off, thankfully.

I also picked up another one, my second Anthropologie Inspired Capelet. The first was a gift to my mother for mother’s day, and this one I started just because I had nothing else to do. A few months later, I took a look at the progress and decided to continue on!

But I am not sure whether or not to continue just as a regular sweater with some waist shaping, or if I want to come up with something that’s more “empire waisted” and make it flare out at the bottom a bit. I’m also going to have to buy more yarn no matter what, I think. So much for stashbusting.

I like the color of it, personally, it is my favorite kind of blue.

So there we are, we’ll see how long it takes for another update!

Birthday!

I haven’t made much progress with anything. I have been busy doing research for my summer classes. I also ran out of certain colors of yarn for the blanket, so I had to wait until I could get all the way out to a craft store to pick up more. I did, only to find out that I’d forgotten that I needed a third color. Hopefully I’ll have enough for at least another repeat of the rainbow before I have to get another skein.

Tomorrow is my birthday! 21, what a great birthday. Finally out of privileges to be given. My clock is running out, eep! I will leave you with the last progress shot of my blanket.

Bad Ripples

I have nicknamed my blanket the Bad Ripples blanket. I wanted to try Good Ripples, but it makes more sense my way. Fans of Joan of Arcadia should understand the reason, or at least draw a connection with the title. The blanket is looking rather fine. I am proud of it, or rather, I will be when it is finished. It kind of tells a story.

The story of being frustrated and angry and taking it out on a blanket and getting to the point where it just wouldn’t co-operate and making it work. I think I got it down now. I have to make a quick excursion to some kind of store to pick up some more blue and purple. I should do that some time this week so I can continue. I don’t know how many repeats I’ll have. I’ll just play it by ear.

MUCH better, wouldn’t you say?

foot-high-5!

Another spectacular accomplishment. Just kidding, I am none too pleased with the outcome of these socks. I am going to be a trooper and hang on until the end, where I will look up ways to salvage the part that the toes connect to the foot, and at the end of that, I will throw my hands up and just make them into regular socks, casting them aside into a pile that will never be touched.

I also started the ripple blanket from a few posts back. I think I am not going to be too happy with it. What is with me lately? I don’t know, but I only brought a few projects wort of yarn with me to my summer classes, so I am stuck with this for now. I have made a vow to keep from buying more yarn until I can cut my stash into under 70 skeins. I decided to grab a rainbow of colors of Simply Soft and dig in. First I forgot that yellow comes after orange, and then the ripples got all distorted until violet came along. I will see what I can do.

Toesies

The only socks that I ever wear are toe socks. I don’t have any interest in knitting any other kind of socks, since I won’t wear them. Also because sock yarn seems expensive in comparison so the rest of the kinds of yarn out there. But, toe socks are a challenge. I looked around Ravelry for a good pattern, even tough I had the basic idea, and decided to cast on with some cheap acrylic yarn that I had hanging around in my stash. I have something like 15 skeins of Luster Sheen that I inherited after a woman dropped half her stash (a garbage bag full, quite literally) on me.

Anyhow, after a night of toe work, I finally started to connect them. That was a disaster. I wasn’t keeping any tension, so I might try to re-do it after the rest of the sock is done. Maybe not? It’s just a sock, after all, and it’s only the first one.

I’m going to combine some of this toe sock pattern with one for knee socks, because there is no better sock than a knee sock to me. We’ll see how easily I get bored with this, though.

As of the picture, I have about two inches or so of sock added past the toes. Who knows, maybe I’ll start to like sock knitting.

Dye, take two.

I wrapped up the rest of my skein of Fishermen’s Wool yesterday by dyeing it. I was curious as to what the results would be, since I had agreed on going with orange and green.

It went smoother this time, since I had a better handle on what I was doing, and also because I didn’t have to wait several hours for the last few packets of dye. I think I might have a new addiction in the making–and really, to think, I have way too much yarn as it is already without making more.

After letting it hang and dry out (impatiently, I might add), I re-wound it on the chair. I love how it turned out, even the browns that came out of the cross-dye. I will figure out what to make it it eventually!

Oh, but I crochet sometimes.

I don’t pay enough attention to what I title things. I crochet a lot, too. Usually when I want something mindless or simple, or bags, or something really quick, I’ll crochet it. I always forget to mention that. My ex-boyfriend is the one who taught me how, although once I started reading into it, I learned that what he showed me was all messed up and wrong.

When I was in Wal*Mart (sorry, guys, I know, I know), I was checking out their yarn selection for the blanket I want to make. I was browsing Ravelry and decided that I was going to do the Easy Ripple Afghan. I thought about colours and had a great idea. I really love the old muted 70’sish colors. The drab olive, burnt orange, mustard yellow. They remind me of the seat on the subway in Buffalo. I think I’m going to do it in those colors. Stupid me, I was off on what I’d already purchased, and didn’t think to grab the yarn I’d actually new. I grabbed the crochet hook, though? Yeah, that makes sense.

And how could I forget! I picked up kool-aid for another journey into dyeing. I picked up green and orange, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting.