Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Episode 3: Sweater Lessons

 

I really wish I knew how to control what frame Youtube freezes on. I hope to get the show notes up by tomorrow!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Episode 2: Nothing New



(I love how YouTube gives you me with my eyes closed. Brings back memories of my 5th Grade class picture)

On The Needles:
Spinning:
  • Finished plying Never Enough Thyme Polworth/Silk in Winter's Chill
  • ~360 yards of a 2-ply fingering weight yarn, and 104 yards of an undetermined weight of a navajo-plied yarn
  • Up Next: Loop Bullseye Bump in Full Bloom!
Stash Enhancement:
  • Fishknits self-striping sock yarn in "Shades of the Proverbial Knitter"
 What I'm wearing: Gail (aka Nightsongs) by Jane Araujo knit in handspun gifted to me by Jane!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Episode 1: The Pilot


Show Notes:

On The Needles:
  • Taiga Cowichan in Cascade Eco (NOT Cascade 220 Eco)
  • Hermione's Every Day Socks
Spinning:
Finished Objects:
  • Christening Cap
  • Ski Lodge Socks
Thanks for watching!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Zipper and a Handle

Yesterday, I finally got around to sewing my February project bag. It took me about 2 hours. Again, I'm pretty sure it should have taken 45 minutes or less, but I'll get there! I only had to rip out one seam, so I'm improving.

I used this tutorial because I wanted a larger bag and I wanted a handle. Now that it's done, I wish I had added the little pulls on the sides to make zipping it easier. So, next time I will do that. I think I'll also use some heavier interfacing to make a more structured bag. Actually, I think the next zippered bag I'm going to attempt will be a wedge shaped one. We'll see.

Anyway, here's my Valentine bag:

I think it came out really nicely!!! Here's a shot of the inside:

It's just large enough to hold the Taiga Cowichan sweater and what's left of the purple ball of Cascade Eco+. A child's sweater project would definitely fit easily in the bag.

I'm making steady progress on the Taiga. I finished the pockets on Monday night while watching Larry Crowne (which was really not very good. And I didn't have high expectations). I'm slowly working the bottom portion of the sweater. I made a little progress on that last night while watching Lars and the Real Girl (why yes, I totally hit up the grown-up movie section at the library this week). I was pleasantly surprised by this movie! It wasn't nearly as quirky as I thought it would be! It was both sad and sweet and I liked it a lot more than I expected!

I'm pleased with the sweater so far. I need to have the main body done by Monday for the steeking class that I'm taking. I also have to look for some kind of closure. The pattern calls for toggle buttons, but I'm not in love with that idea. Maybe I'll hit up Joann's later this week. Any opinions would be welcome!

The dangling parts in the front are the pockets   






Friday, February 8, 2013

How a 6 Year Old Spends a Day Off of School with No Snow

Who do you think will win, the dinosaurs or the soldiers?

Plus, I finally finished my Ski Lodge Socks!
 They're off by ONE ROW!

The snow is falling slowly but surely in Massachusetts. I foresee lots of knitting time tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Photographic Evidence

I thought I'd give some photographic evidence of my 2013 goals so far!

First up, I have the first half of the Taiga Cowichan that I started last week:
 The yarn is Cascade Eco and I worked the stockinette section on a size 10, but I'm doing the colorwork section on a 10.5. I haven't actually checked my gauge in the colorwork, but I feel like it it's looking the right way, so I'm going to go with it. The band in the front are my extra stitches so I can cut a steek. I'm taking a class on steeking in a couple of weeks, so I hope to have this ready to cut by then. I'm pretty confident it will get done, since I'm halfway through and I've only been working on this a few days. Don't you just love bulky yarns for that reason?

You can see the two balls of yarn in the corner of the photo. I think I'm going to have quite a bit of yarn left!

Spinning-wise, I've finished two ounces of my Never Enough Thyme Fiber in Winter's Chill. (Sorry about the shadows in the picture). I know that there are A LOT of over spun parts to this, especially towards the end of the bobbin. I don't really know what happened, but I had a mess and had to pull off a few yards of the singles and toss them because they were so over spun. I'm putting the other half of the fiber on another bobbin. I'm about 1/2 ounce through the second half, so maybe by the end of next week I'll have some new yarn to show you!
 Finally, I still have not finished my Lollipop Yarn socks. This is the first one:
I have the stitches for the heel picked up on the second one and maybe it will get finished this week. I've been too occupied with the sweater to think much about the sock. I knit these socks over 56 stitches on a size 2 needle instead of my usual 60. I find that my socks slouch just a little bit and I'm curious to see if this helps. The smaller sock fits fine, but I do have to be a little careful when pulling it over my heel.

Nothing else has really gotten any attention this week. It's been very quiet around here the last two days, and I've sort of been relaxing and not worrying about much, besides laundry and dishes (we really can't go any amount of time without thinking about laundry and dishes).

Friday, February 1, 2013

2013 Goal Check-In

On New Year's Eve, I laid out my knitting goals for 2013 here.

I thought I'd try to check in monthly to see if I've made any progress!

So far, I have not watched the Andrea Wong DVD, so I'm no closer to learning to knit Portuguese style and I have not picked up the Birthday Pi shawl once. However, I've made progress on all the other goals!

I spun up the byMelody batt that I bought at Rhinebeck and I've been slowly spindle spinning the fiber I bought from Into the Whirled. I had knit up one of the sock yarns and the red and white sport weight yarn before Christmas. This week, I cast on for a sweater using the Cascade Eco. I think I'm doing very well attacking the Rhinebeck stash! The Cascade sweater also fits into my knit myself sweaters goal!

I'm hoping to knit 4 pairs of socks this year. I almost have a completed pair of striped socks - they are both awaiting their afterthought heels. Yesterday, I picked up the stitches on one of the socks, and hope to have the heels in by the end of the weekend. I've also knit the leg of another sock.

Finally, I sort of participated in the Knitgirllls Expand Your Horizons challenge for January. By sort of I mean that I have some Babydoll Southdown fiber and I spent one or two afternoons attempting to spin it. I plan to give it some more time this weekend, so I'm going to credit myself for this one.

After one month, I'm feeling pretty good about achieving my goals!

How are you doing?