road trips, sock yarn, and possibly spinning?

sorry i have been incommunicado for the past weekend, i went on a spontaneous road trip to try to distract me from what time of the year it is. i wanted to come back later, so i wouldn't be in this room on this day of days but some things just can't be helped. it was a good distraction though. but i digress. this is a knitting blog so i shall distract myself with knitting, just like i have for the past year. i picked up my needles for the first time in years the last 1 of july and it seems like i haven't put them down since. i started knitting a pair of charades on five dpns, see the picture?? of course, when i turned the heel and started using only four, i left the fifth in a sushi restaurant. they threw it away. i finished one sock on four, but refused to start the other one without my fifth. i'm knitting the toe-up, and the way i work the toe requires either markers or five needles. and seeing how i only keep one marker in my pocket at all times, i couldn't do either. (yes, i keep a spare marker and a guitar pick in every pair of pants. i am a huge nerd.) so on the way back, we stopped in jerome, az. i went to knit 1 bead 2, which people had just raved about. for good cause, i will say. the whole store is sorted into colors. i love yarn stores like that. i have only been to one other one, ironically in laguna beach right around this time last year. i bought some sock yarn, because i am in dire need of plane knitting. i also started the hemlock hoodie using my malabrigo. i finished the body and started the first sleeve. no pictures yet.

i bought two skeins of koigu premium merino in greys, and local merino in pinks. both colors i haven't used before! i'm not sure what they will be yet. i will leave you with this, my then-in-progress charade sock:

i think i'm going to learn how to spin. my dad is making drop spindles for a local artist, and she agreed to teach me.

july.

mrs. darcy cardigan.

pattern: mrs. darcy cardigan by mary weaver

yarn: 3 skeins of vanna's choice solid in kelly green

needles: US 9

dates: cast on 7 june 2008, cast off 13 june 2008

modifications:

knit body in one seamless piece, sleeves knit flat separately, then knitted into the yoke at armhole
folded hem instead of garter stitch edging
sets of four paired decreases before and after twisted ribbing
knit in twisted ribbing on wrong sides by ptbl
added one extra button
3/4 length sleeves


notes:

i finally got the hang of seaming!! the seams on the sleeves are practically invisible! i actually had no idea how i was going to add the sleeves, and it almost ended terribly. i used a three needle bind off to make the shoulders. i should have used short rows, but that didn't occur to me until it was too late. as a result, my armholes are a little tight. i think it came together nicely in the end though. i really thought it wouldn't.

about my mods: there is nothing wrong with the pattern. i absolutely loved it. i just go to great lengths to avoid seaming.



i am sick of sweaters. i started a mini cardigan and brompton. i am almost done with the mini cardi; it just needs sleeves but i can't bring myself to finish it. and though i am so excited for a finished brompton, i just can't face the prospect of one more top-down cardigan right now. i need something quick, satisfying yet complicated. solution: colorwork! so i started these little stashbusters:

stripey yarn pirate hipsters and trillian's argyles.

the hipsters are just fun. and the "seriously entertaining" socks were inspired by this thread on ravelry. i don't know why i haven't tried argyle before. i absolutely love it. it's not nearly as hard as i thought, but it's not mind-numbing either. wonderful.

june.

twiggy sweater dress.

pattern: twiggy tunic, from twinkle's big city knits.

yarn: 3 skeins of lion brand wool ease thick and quick, in fig.

needles: US 15

dates: cast on 9 june 2008, cast off 1o june 2008

modifications:

three increases in sleeves, instead of five
made sleeves twenty inches long
made body around 24 inches long

notes:

i almost don't want to count this one as part of my challenge. the whole thing took me only about six hours total to knit. i made the wintery version with bulkier yarn than called for. i didn't mean to make it off the shoulder, it just came out too big. i'm rather happy with the results. this was my practice sweater. i used it to practice cabling without a cable needle for my soon-to-be demi pullover. i also used it to figure out how to join the sleeves and the body at the armhole, and knit the yoke together, which is what i want to do for the darcy cardigan.

i can't believe i ever cabled with a cable needle.

on a side note: the finger on my left hand, the one i use to push the needle down to remove a stitch, has now become a causality in my knitting challenge. what do i mean, you ask? i mean it is bleeding. now normal people, when they develop a knitting wound, would stop knitting. but not me. i, with my addictive personality who does everything to excess (exactly why i'm straight edge), ran out and bought myself a dozen of these:

yep, i bought finger protectors. and the whole bleeding index finger thing is now merely a bump on the road to darcy progress.



i think i need to take a knitting hiatus.



oh, one other thing: i swear i have a life. i have just mastered the art of living while knitting.

may.

sideways spencer.

pattern: sideways spencer redux by annie modesitt

yarn: 4 skeins of bernat satin in denim mist heather

needles: US 7 and US 8

dates: cast on 3 june, cast off 7 june

modifications:

knit sleeves in round
made sleeves a little bit longer
same amount of increases in sleeves, just more often to fit the chart better
cast on more stitches for a longer waist
shorter back, lengthwise
added one extra button

notes:

love this sweater! it’s perfect for arizona summers, where it’s 120 degrees outside, but the a/c makes the inside arctic. plus, the yarn is super soft and cuddly. and only $1.75 a skein. i had never made a collar before, nor had i ever knit a sweater sideways (which was really an interesting experience.) i couldn't visualize how it would all come together until the very end! i made a few mistakes and actually frogged them because the cables are so pretty and i couldn't bear to have the wrong yo's in places. the only mistake i didn't fix was at the end, when i ended up with a discrepancy between the cables on the front and back. i think that was because i made my back shorter and forgot to account for it when i started the right front side. i let it be, and it's not very noticeable since you never see the back and front next to each other.

this was the first sweater to come out of my micheal's shopping spree next week. mrs. darcy cardigan will be the second. i started it yesterday and haven't gotten very far. i can already tell it's going to be pretty warm and won't be worn until the fall.

FO: foliage and earhart helmet

well, seeing as how i'm stuck in kurast (diablo), i figured i'd do some stashbusting. so here we go, an illustrated blog of my past week. raisin-y foliage

pattern: the ever-so popular chunky foliage. yarn: some neon purple worsted acrylic, held double stranded. needles: US 10.5 dates: cast on and off 30 may 2008 modifications: an extra half pattern repeat didn't change needles for ribbing, just decreased eight stitches first row of ribbing was twisted, for stability seven rows of ribbing instead of five notes: this was inspired by geeyouknit's version. mine looks like a raisin if you turn it inside out so i'm tempted to wear it inside out. it's much more purple than it looks in the pictures.

helmet

pattern: amelia earhart aviator cap yarn: some dusty purple worsted acrylic needles: US 8 dates: cast on and off 1 june 2008 modifications: none notes: it's a little bit big and very ridiculous but it was fun to make, and really helped me get the hang of short rows. i'm not sure where i'll wear it though. on another knitting note, micheal's was having a "25% off entire purchase" sale. i went and i bought yarn. a whole cart's worth in fact:

(and yes, that is my unfinished thermal lying in wait inside my bag.)

i also bought some baskets to hold all the yarn. i bought enough yarn for five sweaters and three baskets (i bought another one to hold the newspaper but i think it might become a purse instead). my entire purchase was less than eighty dollars. the yarn was fifty. ten dollars per sweater is really good!! the yarn will eventually become: (ravelry links) twiggy tunic mrs. darcy cardigan demi sideways spencer redux and a mini cardigan finally, i finished my may sweater. i'll blog it once i have decent pictures of the child i made it for wearing it. right now it just looks like an ugly orange monstrosity in my blocking pictures.