A Bitter Knitter

I last blogged two months ago, and in that two months I have accomplished a big whoppin' NOTHIN'.  I have no new finished projects to show, much less any photo-worthy progress on any other works in progress. Instead I have started and frogged multiple things repeatedly.  In this process I have learned: That reading the directions is important.  All the directions.  While this sounds really obvious, it's amazing how many times I keep learning this lesson.  Guess it's not sticking... Before casting on some ridiculous 600+ stitches using Judy's Magic Cast-on, it is useful to read the direction that says to switch the positions of the tail and working yarn.  Uh-huh.  Because otherwise your working yarn is on the wrong side to start the project, and then you have to pull it all out and do it again. I actually ended up saying "forget it" to that cast on and doing a different provisional cast on, only to discover that the pattern and I don't g...

I owe you an update... I promised you pictures of stealth projects in "late March."  Well, I guess May 2nd is now "late March."  Sure.  Let's go with that.  So here we have the promised stealth projects, as well as the other projects I've completed since. STEALTH PROJECTS: My older sister is expecting a baby in a couple months, and these are for my future nephew: Because I think every little boy needs a "Hobbes" tiger .  We're calling this his " hat of many colours ." And for my niecelette, a pair of socks in her favourite colour, "hot pink," to celebrate that she will soon be a big sister: RECENTLY FINISHED PROJECTS: 1- Bubble Socks that I started back in November and finished during a 12-hour Doctor Who marathon.  (Did you know that you can watch all of Series 5 in 12 hours?  You can.  I know.  Pam and I did  it, and it was awesome.): 2- My second pair Musical Mitts .  (The first ones are here . )  Thes...

Take some yarn... (well, not just some yarn.  Lots of yarn.  About 1200 yards in this particular instance.) Add some knitting needles, a few stitch markers, a handful of blocking pins, and an emergency crochet hook.  Wait 125 days (who knows how many hours... I'm not sure I really want to know that number...) and then, if the Knitting Fates have smiled upon you... ...your yarn will grow up to become a sweater. My NaKniSweMo sweater is finally all grown up.  *sniff*   More photos when I can get some one to take them for me--I'm just ecstatic with the fact that these sleeves are LONG ENOUGH for my abnormally long arms . Also, since my last post, I've finished another pair of socks: These are the first pair of socks I created without a specific pattern--they are knit straight from my brain.  They are also my first socks with afterthought heels.  I love the colours, especially of the variegated yarn.  The LYS I ...

Dear Pair of Pesky Purled Stitches- You hid so stealthily from me while I knit the sleeve of my sweater, waiting until the sleeve was soaking wet to expose yourself.  You placed yourselves on the sleeve right where it would crease at the elbow so that you knew I would see you every time I wore the sweater.  And you did it all to torment me.  You knew that being faced the wrong way would cause you to catch the light differently than all the other stitches in the broken rib pattern.  You wanted  to draw attention to yourselves and away from the sweater as a whole. Multiple people told me that you were just two stitches and no one would notice, that you weren't worth the effort, and that I should just let you be.  But you and I know that isn't true.  From the moment you showed your faces, you should have known that you were doomed.  I could not allow you to besmirch my sweater, and so you had to go. I admit that I was intimidated by you. ...

If I would stop stealth knitting, you would get blog posts.  I'm planning a post for late March that will show you what I've been up to in January and February, but you're going to have to wait until then for most of my knitting progress. For today, however, I have some good yarn-y news. I have finished all the pieces for my sweater! Yes, my NaKniSweMo sweater is finally cast off.  It's currently blocking (perched precariously on my piano) and looks like a puzzle waiting to be put together...  A sweater sized jigsaw puzzle... The second sleeve is hiding down on the piano bench.  Each sleeve took a whole skein of yarn.  Or, to rephrase, it took 200 yards per sleeve to make them long enough for me.  Of course, it was after  knitting all 400 yards (or 50 inches) of sleeve and putting the whole thing in to soak that I noticed the mistake below: Two stitches that should have been knit that I distractedly purled instead.  If I had noticed before...

It's looking sweaterish!  After 18 pattern repeats, I finally finished the horseshoe lace pattern.  I have successfully divided for the back and fronts and managed not to flub the shaping!  Today I begin the sleeves... all 50 inches of sleeve... but with how fast the back and fronts went, I actually don't think that it will be too bad.  (Of course, I'm saying that now.  Ask me how I feel about it later, when I'm done with one sleeve and realize that had I normal length arms I would be a third of the way through the second sleeve.) My niecelette (3yo) has discovered Fraggle Rock.  She called me the other day because she was watching an episode and the Doozers take up knitting because they can't build, which is what they usually do (for whatever reason.  I missed that part).  But they sing a song about knitting.  And I know you want to see it too, so I've embedded it below.  (If you find it hard to understand the lyrics, you can read th...

We're now over a week into the new year.  I've been mulling over the past year and what I want to "resolve" to do this year, so here's my 2011 knitting goal: Complete at least 24 knit projects. That's an average of two a month.  (Last year, my first complete year as a knitter, I finished 20 projects of various sizes, so I think this goal is extremely reasonable, as I was also in school for half the year.) Among those projects I want to: Knit a project with beads. Knit a pair of mittens. Knit a pair of gloves. Knit a pair of toe-up socks. Among my list of things to knit "someday" are the following: Knit an afghan Knit with 100% silk Knit with cashmere Knit a drop stitch pattern Knit a pullover sweater Knit a cardigan with buttons Knit something that has steeks Knit something with entrelac Knit something intarsia I also want to learn how to knit Continental and how to knit and purl backwards.  If any of these happen this year, great...