Ugh

Early morning frogging is the last thing I wanted to be doing today, but I realized I picked up too many stitches for the top of my Shell and if I kept going, it would be huge. The lace would not have opened up and stretched as it should. So I just lost about an hour and half or so worth of work. Oh well, I'm going to think it through a bit better and repick up those bodice stitches shortly. I just wanted to have a small whinge about it first.

However, I made it to the halfway point on my scarf last night which was my goal for the week. So very likely, I'll get quite a bit further before our first weigh in tomorrow.

Trying to keep up with blogging...

At least a few times a week!

Been busy busy busy thanks to the husbeast being home for a 4 day weekend. One of the perks of being military is the extended holiday weekends. So I still have tomorrow with him home to keep knitting and moving right along on these knits. And they are going faster then I would have predicted even a couple of days ago.

Remember how I said I thought the lower portion of my Tie Shell top would take at least a week?

It's done.

I'm ready to start the upper lace portion tomorrow and at this point in time, I am cautiously optimistic that I may be able to call it an FO by mid-month. If that's the case, it will have taken me just shy of three weeks to knit and that feels good. It's been quite some time since I could claim to have done that. I'm not sure if it's that I've gotten slower, or if Ravelry is eating up my time I would otherwise spend knitting.

Don't mind me while I pat myself on the back for this lovely job picking up stitches at the waist band. I'm not sure when this happened, but I have developed a knack for doing it.

I've also been working on the scarf I posted about a couple of days ago. It's moving right along, a bit slower then I would have thought, but it's going. I've used up about 30% of the yarn so far and I'm hoping to be through half the skein by the 7th for the first Snob weigh in.

I just love how this colorway is pooling right now! I couldn't have planned that better if I tried. Blue columns in a sea of brown are love.

Something rare

Decided to cast-on a third project for a quick gratitfication knit and a yardage boost: I'm participating in the Snobs' Yardage contest again this month after two off.




I think it's looking alright so far. It will be a shawlette/triangular scarf. I've been dying to cast-on with some of my Squoosh and love this colorway. I'm so happy I'm getting to use it and like how it's striping so far. MCN blends are very quickly becoming my favorite type of yarn to use.

Early morning knitting

Discovered early this morning that the tie I was working on would be way too big in the largest size, so I got to adjust down two sizes to stop it from overlapping. That allowed me to finish with a couple of inches to knit and I have now picked up the stitches for the bottom of the shell. Yay!

This solves my problem with what to do with the top, since the size I'm making is now the one for my torso size and the one I usually use when making a sweater. Well, I shouldn't say, "solves," I should say that it changes my problem. Now I'm giving serious thought to a horizontal bust dart in lace. Tricky, but would be worth it. I've seen them done in sweaters with cabling as well.

Yardage post for June 2009

It's that time again: yardage tally for the month. My yarn used for June was rather low, the lowest yardage I've had all year, but it was entirely worsted and aran weight. Had I done any fingering weight projects, or some lace, it would have been much higher.

Yardage totals for 2009:

January: 937 yds
February: 1286 yds

March: 1466 yds

April: 1093 yds
May: 909 yds

June: 759 yds
Year to date: 6450 yds or 3.67 miles

So all in all, I really can't complain. I hope to get back to doing 1000 yds+ in July. I had been secretly hoping to knit a mile's worth of yarn a month, but at this point, I'd be happy to average over a half mile. Eventually I want to keep track of the yardage of yarn acquired as well and work on a system of being able to buy only half of what I knit. Looking at these numbers here, I can buy a skein of sock yarn a month, maybe a small skein of lace, or else a couple of skeins of worsted. Things aren't looking so good for my buying if I implement that system. Or else I'd have to bank yardage for larger purchases, which is sort of similar to what I do now.

When I'm not yarn bingeing.

And my birthday is the 20th of July which will indeed cause me to want to binge and spend any birthday money I get on yarn. I'm trying to stay strong and make myself buy non-yarn items instead, like maybe a set of metal interchangeable needles, or a shiny new DS lite since my current one is having some issues. I guess we shall see if birthday money comes my way. As it is, I've been having a hard time resisting KnitPicks new city tweed lines, especially the DK in Orca. The second I saw it, it screamed, "TANGLED YOKE CARDIGAN!!" at me and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's been since before I went back home to Wisconsin...so at least two months now. I've been wanting to do a Tangled Yoke cardigan since the pattern came out in IK's Fall 2007 issue, but haven't gotten around to it yet. At the time, the thought of spending $80 on yarn for a sweater was appalling to me, though I spend way more then that now. The other reason I never did it was that all the colors of Felted Tweed--the pattern's yarn--didn't appeal to me. But the Orca? *Swoon* Seriously, it's a fantastic grey color and I have yet to work with tweed. I've been wanting to make some more neutral colored knits and this yarn with that pattern seems to fit the bill.

Trying to resist, but if I do give in, well, it is my birthday and why not buy something that would make me happy?!

Other then that, making slow but steady progress on the waist tie for my shell sweater. I had to knit an 18" tie, then 9.75" for the back waist band, then 21.75" for the front waist band, then another 9.75" , and then finish off with the other 18" tie. Tonight I finished the second back waist band section and am several inches into the second 18" tie section. If I can keep at it and focus tomorrow, I should be able to finish the waist band completely and then start on the bottom section of the sweater. I know I want that to be as-written, but I'm still unsure of what I want to do about the lace upper body. At this moment, I'm thinking I may do them as-written but a couple of needle sizes smaller. I really should read ahead and make up my mind on that. At the rate I'm knitting though, I probably have a good week before I need to worry.

Finished!

Finished the baby gift for my friend. I'm almost 100% sure she doesn't check my craft blog. If I want to show her what I've been working on, she usually checks Flickr. So for now, I'm keeping the pictures off of that site but I thought it would be safe to post up here.

Pattern: Offset Wraplan

Needles: Knitpicks Harmony interchangeables US 7

Yarn: Lionbrand Cotton-Ease

Very fast knit. Took a week but had I not taken my time with it I could have finished much more quickly. I had forgotten how quickly these worsted weight baby knits work up. For the most part, I stuck to the pattern. It was a simple, basic construction. Nothing too fancy. It's written for sport weight or DK yarn, so I cast on for the 0-3 month size and ended up with a sweater that fits my 9 month old. Which should be perfect for when her little guy needs a sweater this fall and winter.

I plan to heavily alter this pattern to make a sweater for my daughter down the road. I'm planning to make it short or 3/4 sleeved as well as a hoodie.

I discovered that felt is not the easiest thing to work with. But for a first time working with it and being a disgustingly bad hand sewer, I think I did alright.

So yay! FO #11 for the year is now complete. That number makes me a bit sad since it means I've been completing fewer then two knits a month. I'm hoping to have at least two a month for the rest of the year. If I do some smaller projects, I should be able to accomplish that.

Rethinking patterns for old yarn...

So, I have to admit, I have a stashing problem. I find a pattern, fall in love, and buy the yarn for a project or three. I've been knitting so slow that by the time I get through one or two, I've bought yarn for at least 5 more. It doesn't help that there are beautiful new patterns I want to make coming out so fast I can not keep up. Then add the random sock yarn to it and my poor tote has long since been overflowing. I'm currently trying to get back into my tote and more importantly, use up some of the sweater quantities of older yarn I have sitting around.

Now I realize the easiest way to make the excess yarn disappear would be to destash. But for whatever reason, I'm too attached to these particular yarns to just let them go. Seriously, I get upset thinking about selling them, but can't find the right pattern to use them. So they sit there. Grumbling at me from being in my tote for more then a year.

"Why don't you use me?!"

"I'm not good enough for the ____ you planned to make with me?"

"I see you brought in more yarn, WHAT ABOUT ME?"

And on and on. I have been scrambling to find patterns to use up these yarns. Free or otherwise. Because you know you're in trouble when you imagine that your yarn is talking to you.

Here are the worst offenders in my tote. They're beautiful, but I just can't figure out what to do with them.

First is that same Cashcotton DK I brought up on the blog before I went on vacation. It is still in my tote; I didn't get around to using it while back in Wisconsin. I think I'm finally settled on what to do with it and if I'm lucky, I may make two tops with it. OK, not settled, but there are three patterns that would all be lovely in it. Yes, only three.

Then there's the Rowan cotton 4 ply that was supposed to be a Jasmine, until I realized that is not the most flattering choice of top for me. It is such a beautiful raspberry color. It has been long since discontinued and was a chance grab from a Ravelry destash. A whole 10 skein bag. L-u-c-k-y. Good luck trying to find 10 skeins all from the same dyelot on a discontinued yarn. Only on Ravelry could you find something like that. It is screaming to be used. Right now, I'm waiting on the newest issue of France's Phildar for a t-shirt that looks promising for this yarn. Good thing I can read French as I've seen no mention of an English translation for the current issue. And even if there were, it's only the instructions. The magazine itself is still in French which I find amusing and rather quirky.

Last, there's the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece I bought to make a second Rusted Root out of. I adore my Root, but have been questioning if I want a second brightly colored one and man, this stuff is a bright, electric blue. So pretty and Cotton Fleece knits up really nice. It's a good yarn for hot weather.

Since I'm almost finished with the baby knit I'm working on, I decided to get a head start on my next knit and cast on last night.

Isn't it lovely? Obviously, the Cotton Fleece was the winner, and I chose a brand new pattern to use it with. The winner is yet another Connie Chang Chinchio pattern, the Tie Back Shell from Knit.1's Summer 2009 issue. It's that tangerine colored top right on the home page. Very pretty and interesting. My gauge on size 7's is spot on and I might have to play with the top part a bit, but I definitely am making the largest size for the bottom. I might make one size for the back and the largest for the front. I have time to give this some thought and see how things go. I have a hard time reading ahead and visualizing what I'm going to be doing, so I'm taking this one step at a time for now. My gift knit should be done by the weekend's end and then I'm focusing on this and my socks for awhile.

Going back to my original thought, about patterns in particular, it's hard to foresee where one will end up in terms of what she wants to knit 6 months or more down the road. At the time I bought all the previously mentioned yarns, I was knitting really simple patterns and had plans to make simple objects out of them. Now that I've been knitting for two years, I'm growing bored with simplicity and have been looking for knitting challenges. Knits that won't put me to sleep. Knits that have beautiful lace patterns or unique features. This is probably why I like Chinchio's patterns so much. Like me, she loves finer weight yarns. She takes classic shapes and updates them and puts in gorgeous lace. They're not quick one week knits.

Speaking of which, has everyone seen her newest pattern she just released? Yowza. Must clear out my tote and make some room for that.

More knitting, less blogging and surfing Ravelry, I suppose. :)