Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Birthday Gift with a Halloween Tinge



Finished Bill's snake scarf. His birthday was last Saturday. I also sent the critter I made to Robert whose birthday is the same as Bill's. Yay.
I am about halfway done with the alligator scarf I've been working on. I am also trudging through 3 purse straps. After that, I need to do a bit of felting on 3 otherwise finished projects. And then I'm pretty much caught up on all current works in progress.
Of course, I have about a bazillion other things I need to cast on. Just got yarn to make Lisa some fingerless gloves for Christmas. That will be *MUCH* easier to finish by Christmas than the shrug I was thinking of making her. So - voila - I now can make the shrug for myself ;)
Also got some badass yarn to make myself some awesome awesome fingerless gloves. I would post links, but I'm lazy and I hate this laptop. The end.



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Monday, October 22, 2007

I finished somethin!

So, I finished Amelia's mittens - even pulled in all the loose ends! I know - I can't believe it either. Now I have to finish up those other annoyingly close to being finished projects too. Gotta knit 3 purse straps and do a lil bit of finishing on a couple others. One of them *needs* to be finished this weekend.

Also, what the hell am I going to be for Halloween? I'm planning to go to a Halloween party on Friday, but I have absolutely no good ideas for a costume.

I need to work on taking some better pictures of my stash yarn and finished projects for Ravelry. Also, I'm going to try to make these badass gloves maybe for myself maybe for Lisa. There's not really a pattern given, but I have cobbled together some glove patterns from the net, and I have the stitch pattern for the lace look. We shall see if I can handle it. I also have some snazzy yarn picked out. I think I like the Peacock colorway, but they are all really neat colors. I'm not doing a variegated yarn though, because it will make the lace pattern hard to see.

Anyway - I bought some Addi Turbo needles for trying out the two at a time socks on circulars method. I wanted to check out a bunch of yarn shops that I haven't been to before, but I ended up getting stuck in the traffic from a fatal accident on the freeway on Friday, so everywhere was closed by the time I made it out of town. So, on Sunday, I went to the only shop that was open, and it was pretty cool. Only Ewe and Cotton Too was very small and crowded with women knitting, but they had some really nice finished projects on display and some nice yarns and needles to choose from. I found the Shi Bui yarn there, but the peacock colorway did not have enough skeins to finish my project, so I'll try elsewhere. OK - that is enough rambling for now.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ribbit

Ok - so I frogged that sock cause it was looking super retarded and too huge. No biggie though - I did learn the basics of the 2 circular method. Now, I'm going to take my yarn and pattern with me out of town this weekend and pick up some Addi Turbos at a LYS. THEN I'm gonna try it again, and I think I'm going to try the two at a time method as well. That would be awesome to have 2 socks done at once.

So, pretty much the only other project I'm working on is the gator scarf, and I'm not feeling it today. All of the other items I'm working on I am waiting on some different needles that I ordered. I just can not stand working with the sucky bamboo ones anymore. They are cheap and shoddy and full of splinters, and they give me the feeling like when a doctor puts a wooden tongue depressor in your mouth.

uhhhhhgghghhghgh

Just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies.

I could start on the retro shrug I want to work on, but I am too lazy to wind the yarn right now. Maybe Bill will help me this weekend. I'm going to bring tons of knitting crap with me on our mini-vacation =D

It's gonna be awesome.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

cheapass needles


1016071409
Originally uploaded by Joolee_2000
My circular needles suck :(

I knew they were kinda lame, but now they full on suck, because I'm trying to knit a sock on two circulars. I have these Susan Bates fixed circulars, and the cords and all wonky and they're getting in my way. Everyone (well, the book I'm reading and one faculty member at work) tells me I should get some Addi Turbos for socks. It's just lame that I bought all these other sucky ones, and now I'm going to have to buy some more...and the Addi Turbos are mega expensive! They are $12-15 for ONE set, and I would have to have two sets of several sizes if I planned on making socks that way for the long haul.

I do think I prefer this method even without the better needles. I don't feel stressed out like I do with the DPNS, and I don't have to fear that stitches are slipping off where I can't see - I'm super paranoid about that. Also, I always knit extra tight on the DPNS and still end up with ladders. With the circulars, I'm not seeing a ladder yet, and I'm not pulling tight as hell (which puts me in a bad mood).

So, right now I have the heel done and gusset stitches picked up - working my way through the decreases. It's an ankle sock, so it looks really weird to me right now, but hey - no leg means I'm done faster. I would like to work on a decorative leg though. Maybe that's what I'll do next - and 2 at a time. I seriously think I'm going to wait on the Turbos to try that out.

I have a giant headache.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Samhain bogeys

I just blew my nose on the super snazzy tissues on the left and checked for stray bogeys using my swank new compact. I am at work going through old books to delete, and they are putting me in allergy hell.

Stuff to finish

I so hate finishing things - I just like the interesting knitting parts, and the putting together parts suck. This list is for me, so I can *maybe* accomplish something this weekend:

-deco clutch purse strap
-deco clutch sew together
-deco clutch felting

-wallet sew together
-wallet felting
-wallet zipper

-tie cut out liner>
-tie sew on liner

-snake tongue
-snake tail
-snake blocking

-ruffle purse strap
-ruffle purse sew together
-ruffle purse felting

-blue purse strap
-blue purse sew together

-mittens ruffles (X2)

I think that's it.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Alligator Scarf



I cast on the alligator scarf yesterday. It's looking pretty fun so far.

The theme for today is: I HAVE HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE.

And I feel like a mega-spazz.

And I'm really not interested in doing any work.

And I really want to do some blogging, cause I have stuff to talk about, but

a) my laptop has a sucky keyboard that keeps pissing me off
and
b) my brain can not focus on anything for that long
and
c) I just want to keep typing and and and and and

I have a Queensryche song stuck in my head. ??

Friday, October 5, 2007

My first mitten

This is my first ever mitten. I made it tonight while watching Tourist Trap. It came along mighty quick. Course it's for a four year old. I am paranoid that it is too small. It looks tiny as hell. Used knit picks superwash wool and a pattern I found online that I'll link to later when I am home.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Stressful Knitting

So, knitting is supposed to be relaxing, right?

Well, not when everything you are working on is completely jacked up in some way.

Finally finished all of the knitting on the snake scarf, but the head was a major pain in the ass. I ended up with some weird holes that I had to whipstitch together. I am sure this had to do with the fact that the FRIGGING YARN KEPT BREAKING. The yarn broke like 12 times during the course of the project. And the place where it broke on the head was pretty much totally unfixable without some major jimmy rigging (which I'm pretty good at), but it was mighty frustrating.

I've also been knitting on this purse that I started in like February. It has been one of those super mega boring projects that is just plan knitting for miles that I only work on in social settings. Seeing as how I have not gone to any knitting groups lately, it's been languishing for a while. I brought it with me to hang out with a friend over the weekend, though, and I finished all of the plain knitting!!! YAY!!! Only sucky thing is that the top has a ruffle. The ruffle is made by knitting into the front and back (increasing) of every stitch for 2 rows. This means that after the first row of increases I had 200 stitches and after 2 rows of increases (not quite done with row 2 yet) I will have 400 stitches. Last night, I was knitting along while watching Death Proof (which I saw in the theatre too, and I REALLY LIKE IT LOTS - even more on second viewing) when one of my circular needle cords BROKE. So, after much cussing and pissed offedness, I had to waste like 2 hours screwing around with moving stitches around and stuff.

So, now I am a few dozen stitches away from being done with the 2nd increase row.

Also started on the strap for the deco clutch bag I'm making. Purse straps are REALLY BORING, and I'm so not in the mood, so it's coming along mighty slowly.

I have a library instruction course tonight, and I am way not feeling it. But when am I ever?

OK - my fingers hurt.

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