Yay! Almost done.

Finished the pinwheel blankie this long holiday weekend. Now all I need is to get the yarn for the crocheted floret trim and I'll be officially done. But just in case I can't find the appropriate color, I didn't bind off the last stitch. Since that little bit of yarn is all I have left I didn't want to cut it off in case I need to rip back 2 rounds to do the edging in the CTH Twister yarn. Who knows if I can't find the right color for the edging and actually need that little bit of yarn leftover. Otherwise I'm done with the 430 stitches! Whee!

As for my-so-called-scarf, I finished the first hank, spit-spliced the second hank on and hope to finish the scarf sometime in the next month. Definitely will shoot for the July 4th weekend to finish it off if I don't before then. As for now this week will be devoted to the second secret baby gift and then the August b-day scarf.

After I get the yarn for the pinwheel blankie edging I will officially go on a yarn-buying moritorium for 6 months. Not only do I have my second Webs order coming (as soon as their OOS stuff comes in 2-3 weeks), I have a couple skeins of Brown Sheep cotton fleece from Yarnware.com and I just bought a bunch of yarn from Whispering Willows in Escalon yesterday. This cute store is going out of business and had their yarn and accessories marked down 40%. So I got their 5 skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel in 1317 bright pink (for monkey2 maybe?), their 5 (or was it 7?) skeins of Cascade 220 in 7809 periwinkle (for a felted bag maybe along w/my other Cascade 220), and in their Cascade Cherub DK: 5 skeins of light pink (I think #15, not #4) for something for monkey2, 6 skeins of #28, a fuchsia pink (something for monkey1), 1 skein of white & 1 skein of black for a piratical hat for monkey1's friend. Also got size 3 dpns, size 7 in 24" circulars, and a set of needle point protectors. I think I would bought more 'cept a lot of their colors didn't tempt me for some reason, especially the 5(6?) skeins of Cascade Pima Silk in #6898 green, the 7 skeins of Cascade Cotton Rich in #2550 blue and the 2 skeins of mint green Lion Brand Cotton Ease which was dc'd a year or 2 ago and is a great lemming item for a lot of knitters. Well, there were a couple more yarns 'cept there wasn't enough skeins for what I thought I would use them for (eg 2 skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel red #7478).

Oh wait, maybe I need to see if either of my Cascade 220's in periwinkle or dark periwinkle will work for the pinwheel blanket. If so, then I'm already officially on a no-buy. Sigh.

It's going to be a WIP weekend.

Will be taking my pinwheel blanket and my-so-called-scarf with us for the weekend trip so I can get closer to finishing the 2. I doubt I will finish either as I need to buy the yarn for the pinwheel blanket's floret trim (will do a different yarn but complementary color) and I'm only close to finishing the 1st hank of Manos for the scarf.

In the meantime, I finished secret baby gift 1 this week and need to do secret baby gift 2 next week. Also am swatching up my SWTC bamboo (cobalt) to decide if I want to knit up the Lotus Blossom Tank that's on the cover of the Interweave Knits Summer 2006 issue. Funky stuff this bamboo yarn is. Am also waiting for my issue to show up in the mail. There's a knitalong for the tank so am also deciding if I do knit the tank up, should I join as it would be my first knitalong. Esepcially since there's still the gift scarf I need to do by August.

2 more FO's

SnB Nation drop stitch scarf in Colinette Giotto Rose Garden
size 11 needles

Yay! I'm over a month ahead of schedule. I'm hoping my next gift scarf will be on time for the August deadline.


And a quickie knit all for me! Ozard Handspun scarf. The label doesn't list a color name or # so I'm calling it the teal/purple multi. Since this colorway was thicker than the x-masy one I did earlier for M, the yardage was much shorter so I had no yarn left for the ear flap ties. I even had to knit the ear flaps 3 rows short so they're more like ear nubbins. But I also cast on much looser too since my first Ozark hat was a bit snug on the edge even with casting on size 19(!) needles. Monkey1, of course, thinks the x-masy one was way cooler, but that just means she won't mess w/this hat of mine. Hee. Mine, all mine! Wheeeee.

Wee little Friday FO & UEU

Pattern: Last Minute Knitted Gifts cotton hat

Size: Baby

Yarn: Mission Fall cotton in Peony & uh Plum, I think(the newer version)

Needles: US size 7 dpn's

I need to work on my knotting/bow-tieing skills, but after I pretty up the weaved-in ends. But look how much pink yarn I had left after I ripped back and added the 3 rows of purple! In any case, I'll call that pink skein successfully UEUed (used everything up), to borrow a makeup board acronym. I still have 2 whole skeins of plum, 1 partial blue (Sky), and 1 partial green (Jade) to UEU. While the plums will work well as more LMKG hats, the green & blue may not. Maybe just a couple basic simple hats like the SnB umbilical hat ('cept maybe w/o the umbilical?) so they can go to upcoming baby boys. In any case, the girlie hat will wait for the next next baby girl to arrive in my circle of friends 'cause I don't think this shade of pink will work for the one I originally thought to give this hat to.

Clearly, I still have a lot to learn

Yes, that's how much pink Mission Falls cotton yarn I have left straggling up there. And I'm 7 rows short of finishing. :P So the lesson learned here, aside from the affirmation that I have no skill in determining if I have enough yarn for a project, is that I need to check how much yarn I have left in my little bag much more often than I did. Especially if it's an opaque gift bag and not your cheap, but oh-so-see-through ziplock bag. Sigh. Since I was knitting the smallest size, I'm going to stop and wind the yarn back into a ball and save it for uh, a washcloth. Oh, yay. 'Tay then, off to work out instead and will be back to the drop-stitch scarf so I can finish the bugger.

Edited to add: Nothing like torturing oneself on the elliptical to realize I can rip back to before the eyelet row, do that row and a couple rows before & after in purple, and I'll have enough pink to finish the hat. Then I can use the purple yarn to do the i-cord string or get pink ribbon to thread thru the eyelet. Whew.

Is it Friday yet?

Who knew the SnB Nation drop stitch scarf would be a black hole kind of project. The end is near I think. Maybe by next week. And whatever yarn I have left over will go to fringe, I think.

Speaking of black holes, I came across this entry in a blog about the pinwheel blanket and I'm only on row 70! OMG! Shoot me now.

So what do I do? I cast on for yet another project. This time the child's cotton hat in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. But it is a stash-busting project, abeit a single skein one. At least I'm trying to whittle down my stash!

A little kitten has lost her mitten and mommy doesn't know where to find it. In any case, when I crocheted the pair (pre-knitting days) I screwed up the gauge and one was a tad smaller than the other, not to mention the wonky thumb section. And in any any case, the pair is slated to be placed in a charity location since the monkey's hands were already too big for this baby size I crocheted. I'll just need to find another way to kill the other full skein of this Lion Brand Jiffy yarn I found in my closet. Arrgggh! I thought I only had a 1/2 skein of this horrid yarn left.

Monday's blabbing, part II

Whee, more Ozark Handspun! They had quite a few more colors than on my last visit. Made it so hard to choose a shade though. They also had a wonderful graduated purple and a blue/brown multi-mix. Anyway, the Ozark wasn't included in Imagiknit's sale, but got as my Mom's day gift courtesy of DH.
Ok, so my actual Imagiknit sale items were: 1) 5 skeins of Mango Moon Wooly in purples. Monkey1 picked it out and wants a square baby blanket out of it. Not round. Got it, mommy!?! Good. and 2) 3 skeins of Plymouth Yarns baby alpaca dk for a gift scarf. I might be brave and try the Knitty Branching Out pattern. In any case, I have 3 months to knit this one up. I also saw Imagiknit had Phildar microfiber cotton on sale. This is the yarn Kate Gilbert used to knit up her Samantha pattern. I was tempted to get some, but considering I didn't write down how much yardage I needed for monkey2 and I wasn't feeling the colors (classic white, fuchsia pink?), I passed for now. So maybe I'll just swatch up some leftover KP Shine sport and see where that gets me.

Oh, and while perusing Kate Gilbert's blog, came across this pattern that I think will work nicely w/the obnoxiously bright Art Yarns silk ribbon I have. I think I may need to find a more subdued brown or other muted shade to go w/the Art Yarns Merino 8 to tone it down though, even if I do knit it into a modular scarf.

And even better news, followed the advice of my knitting friend (mentor?) and Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting without Tears, swatched my Butterfly Super 10 cotton on size 8's and got gauge and it's not as loose as I thought it would be! And I'm finding my Butterfly super 10 green yarn is so much softer than the white Takhi cotton classic that was my other swatch. Huh, I wonder if that's do to the bleaching process to get it white enough. Anyway, finally feeling happy about starting Kyoto. Now to finish my other WIP's so I can start. :D

It's been a busy but productive Mom's Day weekend

Kate Gilbert pea pod hat
Originally uploaded by crochet_chick.

especially since I finally got the pea pod hat crown correctly finished off. It's been washed & blocked, so you can really see where I goofed up the leaf lace set-up pattern. Good thing I'm keeping this instead of gifting it away. I didn't check my gauge (it's a hat!), and found it was actually big enough for both my monkeys w/room to grow! Better than being too small. More later when Blogger lets me upload my other pics.

Rip it. Rip it good. (in Devo's tune)

So, sense kicked in this cool morning after getting a bit of sleep. Ripped back to the start of the crown shaping & placed markers so that the leaf pattern in centered. And that's where we'll stop for now since I forgot to pack my dpn's so no re-knitting the crown at lunch for me. Off to do something else for lunch. Laters.

I am a knitting eeedeeooot

Just needing to vent. So I finish the pea pod hat, e-mail the pattern author a big thank you for answering my newbie questions about how to decrease the stitches at the crown, attach a pic and then find out that I neglected to understand that I should've centered the leaf lace between the decreases. Arrgghh! And here I thought I screeched in under the deadline w/a cute though slightly flawed hat. 'Cept I ended up not having enough time to wash and lightly block the lace pattern on the hat 'cause I somehow spend 2.5 hours tonight shopping for basic supplies at Costco.

Now I've got to scramble for a little gift for dd1's teacher. And I've got a totally wonky hat for dd2. I don't want to frog the thing 'cause I so didn't like working with the yarn. Crud.

Oh yeah, my Webs haul

Webs haul
Originally uploaded by crochet_chick.

Got my Webs anniversary sale haul yesterday. Pic showing representive skeins of each one on the right.

The DB cashmerino chunky is so soft! Will do either 1 hat & 1 pr of mittens for monkey2 or 2 hats, one for each monkey.

The 2 colors of Cascade 220 are just so I have some basic feltable wool for something. Don't know what yet.

Disappointed in the Cascade Pima Tencel in Teal. It's a tad lighter and greener than I was hoping for. Nevertheless, I've got the 6 skeins slated for the Shapely Tank, probably.

The Classic Elite Yarns Premiere is also very pretty periwinkle kind of blue. Slated for either the Picovoli, Soleil, or another Shapely Tank. We'll see.

And with Imagiknit's big sale this weekend, my stash will be growing again.

Put a fork in me.

The hat is done.

specs:
pic shows hat unwashed/unblocked and still to have the 2 ends weaved in & the remaining yarn from the skein
Pattern: Hat from Kate Gilbert's Pea Pod Set in Summer 2006 Interweave Knits
Size: largest (18 mo, 171/4")
Yarn: Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere in grey (04) since it was in my stash as opposed to the green called for in the pattern
Needles: size 5 dpn's

So this is my first knitted object in which the pattern utilized a chart to show the lace pattern. I originally intended this to be a gift for monkey1's teacher but the misplaced holes from my bad attempt to fix my error doing the leaf lace set-up portion is bugging the heck out of me. That and I don't like the yarn. It's *crunchy* and splitty. Well, I hoping it softens up when I wash it, but I think I'll just keep the hat for monkey2 and as a lesson learned for me. I totally want to knit the hat again along w/the matching sweater, but probably in a different yarn, and definitely in a pretty green.

Too ambitious for my own good

So, apparently knitting a hat on dpn's all the way through is teaching me I am so not ready to do socks. Including today, I have 2 days to finish this darn hat. And even then, I may keep it since I'm sure I screwed up the 1st 3 rows of the leaf lace set-up chart. Well, I KNOW I screwed up and attempted to fix only those stitches since I wasn't about to rip back 2-3 rows of stitches on 4 frickin' dpn's. So it looks like the little monkey's teacher is going to get a little bag of gwp size Stila stuff on Friday instead. Even if I do finish this hat, the splitty nature of the DB cotton cashmere (I do NOT like this yarn) and what looks like my glaring errors are going to bug me too much to want to give it as a gift to someone. Gah.

Oh, my eyes, my eyes!

So I lied and it's more obnoxiously yellow than green. On the left, we have Artyarns silk ribbon and on the right Artyarns Ultramerino 8, both in colorway #103, described on their website as bright yellow, orange, and green. What the heck was I thinking? In any case, Artyarns does have a scarf pattern using both yarns, 'cept the silk ribbon's sorely underutilized as fringe. I just need to find out if their pattern can use just the 1 skein of the ultramerino 8. If I need more than that, I'm up some kind of creek.

On the uh, bright side, I got my replacement 21" cable from Wright's, the company that makes the Boye interchangeable set. Yay! I so needed it since my pinwheel blankie is getting bigger. Finally.

Manic Monday?

As promised, a progress shot of my CTH (Cherry Tree Hill) Twister Waters pinwheel blanket. I'm so loving knitting w/this yarn. However, not much progress since the end of last week since I took some other projects that need to be done w/us when we went out of town this weekend.

It's teacher appreciation week, so decided (at the last minute, of course) to cast on Kate Gilbert's Pea Pod hat (summer Interweave Knits online) for dd1's teacher's munchkin since I had a skein of the Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere called for in the pattern. I have it in grey rather than green, but it'll do. I have 'til Friday morning to finish this thing.

I did manage to get DH to drop me off in downtown Sonora this weekend so I can take a gander at their lys, By Hand Yarn. Very nice and spacious. A great place for me to go when I forget something on our way to the cabin. The price points for the yarn are higher than lys' in the SF Bay Area, but that's not unexpected for her location in a tourist-y town. Got a 12 (or was it 10?) pack of Monkeysuits patterns from her 65% off Grandma's chest. A total bargain. Will post a pic of the 2 skeins of obnoxiously beautiful Artyarns yarn I got from that chest tomorrow. Can't find a pic of what I think is the colorway online so it might be a dc'd color. Depending on what I knit them into, they'll either be totally bangin' or super hideous. It's that bright. Think lime green and bright yellow.

Almost all is well w/my pinwheel blankie

My swatch is finally dry and since I have a different digi cam and am not at the same desk, I figure I'll take a pic of the swatch w/the pinwheel blankie in progess to show how nicely the swatch survived my washing machine. As much as I hate my washing machine, it is wonderfully gentle to all my knitting projects. The colors didn't fade at all and I see no signs of pilling or felting, so I'm relieved I can throw the blankie in the wash when I need to w/o too many qualms.

I finally got a hold of my knitting mentor/friend yesterday so she helped me rip back half of what I had knitted due to my inadvertently shifting the holes over by 1 stitch. I still have 3(!) twisted yo's, but they're way at the beginning and I'm not about to re-cast the 5 beginning sts on dpn's again. Even my friend made a face at how much of a PITA it is to start w/those 5 measly stitches. Since dd1 will abscond w/this blankie when I'm done anyway and only I know where I messed them up, I can live w/those mistakes.

Progress shot of the Colinette Giotto scarf. I'm using the drop stitch scarf pattern from SnB Nation. I love the colorway (Rose Garden) and how it looks knitted up in this pattern, but I'm not enjoying the process of knitting this one. Is it the ribbon yarn itself? Or maybe it's 'cause my needles are too long & cumbersome? Or maybe the drop stitch pattern is simply not fun w/this yarn as I thought it would be? In any case, I've got 'til at least 'til July to finish this.

Not quite on the backburner, but simply driving me crazy is getting the frickin' gauge for my Kyoto. Knitted another swatch on needles 2 sizes up and I'm still 1/2 stitch too tight, after washing & drying! I must be the only one whose cotton swatches shrink instead of bloom after a wash. And since I air-dried them instead of putting them in the dryer, I am at a loss. So it looks like I will be adjusting the pattern to my gauge instead of the other way around. Bugger.

Cute, no?

The start of my pinwheel blankie in Cherry Tree Hill Twister (Waters colorway). Too bad I need to rip back a bit. I didn't put in stitch markers 'til after I switched from dpn's to a circular and in the process moved my stitches over so the nice lacey holes shifted over. Then there's the newbie mistake of the inconsistent way of how I knitted into the yo's which show up all over the place. Argh! Hopefully my knitting buddy is working today so I can see if she can help me rip back to the first offending spot. Otherwise, I'll have to frog back to the darn 5 st beginning. Otherwise, I love knitting w/this yarn. I love reading all other knitters' experiences with knitting the pinwheel blanket too as they humorously warn that it's one of those black hole kind of projects.

And here's just a pretty pic of my Colinette Giotto in the Rose Garden colorway slated for a gift scarf. Not sure who it's going to, but it's for an up-coming birthday, so I need to get cracking. That'll mean my-so-called-scarf needs to wait on stitch holders 'cause I need those size 11 needles. Unless I buy extra. :)

Appropos of nothing

Had this in my flickr account and some 21 yr old kid made me his contact. Bwahahahahaha! Dude, I am old enough to be your mother! Okay, a teen mother when you were born, but still. Bwahahahahaha. Clearly, my elouai doll is too idealized a version of me and I need to work on it some more.

So, back to knitting. It turns out my Kyoto swatch knitted on the size 5 needles the pattern calls for is uber tight. I started knitting a swatch one size up, got a little looser, but still not gauge, went up again, got gauge and hated the swatch and frogged it. So, I can do one of the following things: Keep the gauge I got w/the size 5 needles and do a bunch of math and adjust the pattern. No biggie but potentially just a PITA. Or I can go w/the needle size 7 that gave me gauge, wash it and see if I change my mind about hating it and knit on from there. Or do what the Yarn Harlot calls having a high gauge risk factor and knit w/the size 5 needles per the pattern (no adjustments) and pray that the cotton will have enough ease when knitted to full size that it'll fit. Am I that brave or stoopid? Probably. Then again, I've probably done worse.

I was brave enough to re-start the pinwheel blanket and this time successfully managed to get 5 sts joined w/dpn's and knitted the beginning row w/o twisting them into a DNA model or mobeius looking thing. Pic coming soon.