hats

Eric sent me some pictures of his kippah and Garrett asked me to make him a hat














yesterday. He designed it - I knitted it today. I told him we should go into business together! I had a fantasy while knitting it that he would be famous and wear one of my handmade hats everytime he performed or had a public appearance. Someone from MTV would ask him about the hats he always wears. He would say, I design them, and my aunt knits them for me.And of course everyone on the face of the planet would want one because he is the coolest person ever.

mixed yarn pattern

I was so excited yesterday morning to find this pattern for my maize yarn that I am mixing with the multi-colored ribbon.After a frustrating morning of figuring out that their key translation was incorrect - an umschlag is a YO NOT a Sl 1 and ripping out about 6 rows, I knitted back to where I had ripped and it looks BEAUTIFUL!















Here















is the progress I've made on the baby blanket.I finished the brown and eggshell blue sweater, but it's a little shorter than I would prefer. I'm going to knit up some extra rows for the front and back and then figure out a way to attach them.I've added new Completed Projects pictures and here















is a closeup of the drop stitch I used for the yarn that Melissa wouldn't let me pay her for. Thank you, Melissa!

new yarn

it's been quite a busy week...having to have dave do the math on my striped sleeves, ripping out, re-knittingand I started on the baby blanketit's pretty simple!one "complicated row" - which repeats a pattern - which then becomes easy to learnthe remaining three rows are repeating combinations of knitting and purlingthose four rows over and over againhere is my new yarn





















serendipitously, the yarn I'm making the baby blanket with got into the picture - top right

a day of finishing

oh yarn sale... so much yarn, so little timeit was such a great idea to go with a few projects in mindmost of the bags I bought went for a specific needand then I bought a few extra kinds just because I liked themand then there was the camel hair/merino bag of 10 skeins that I got for $58.50this was especially a steal because I had grabbed two bags, I looked at the price - $170 and realized that I should take one back because I wouldn't need twothe bag I was left with had a different price on it! $53 worth of a differenceat that point there was no doubt I'd be buying ittomorrow is our knitting get together - so I'll be gathering a skein from each bag to take with me for show and tell. I'll take a picture of them tomorrowplus a picture of the estivo cardigan, cabled mohair that I spent most of the day finishingit's not bad! the mohair hides a lot, but overall - it's a cute, yet somewhat thick sweater - my other show and tell item.I'm several inches near to finishing the striped sweater - going to work on that now!

finishing + practice = no more louise

I was so thrilled to learn the basic finishing techniques today! The hardest thing we learned was adding on a button hole band. And the best part was learning how to do short rows!!!!!I definitely need to practice - and am so excited to have a few projects to work on.Tomorrow is the bag sale - it seemed like so far away for so long, and now it's tomorrow!!! I'll probably be dreaming of yarn all night.

can't control the beast

apparently I couldn't wait for the bag sale on saturday to buy yarnI had to buy from a store I swore I would never again buy frombut it's a gift for someone's baby...and dave said I could...do those things make it OK?I bought Flower Variegated to make a blanket, a hat, and booties
Leah came over yesterday and we knitted.I've started the sleeves on the brown and light blue sweater.

knitting swatches

after a lazy weekend of knitting and ripping(did I mention that I don't follow directions well?)I started knitting my swatches for my finishing classI am using the caron simply soft brites, mangoit's very soft, and I am so in love with the color, I'm thinking of knitting a sweater with it - it's SO crazy - it would look cute with dark blue jeans

addicted to cables

I feel like I'm beginning a new era in my knitting experienceI got my knitware software - which will make my constant use of different yarns for patterns easierI'm taking my finishing class on Friday - I am SO excitedand I completed my first cardigan with cables - the sleeves are PERFECT...I'm already searching for new patterns with cables!I'm 2/3 finished with the back of my brown and blue striped sweaterafter the class, I will have two projects to practice seaming with!the day after the class is the yarn lady's bag sale - I am going through serious yarn buying withdrawal - every day I find myself searching online for yarn - I should have bought the Patons Grace from JoAnn on Thanksgiving day - it would have been $3.23/skein and free shipping. Feeling sick to my stomach about that loss.

I'll show you, my pretty

did I mention that I took dave's sweater to be finished "professionally?"and it still looks weird...I just signed up for a finishing techniques class in encinitas - I am SO excited - I know that if someone can teach me, I'll be able to do it - it's just SEWING with a needle!!!!!!!I need to bind off the back of my divine cardigan and I finished the front of my striped sweater last night - progressthe bag sale is coming up and I'm starting to have yarn buying withdrawl - I don't know if I can hold it together for another two weeks - and I don't even know what I want to make - just know I want to have lots and lots of yarn around me

go bruins

dave helped me whip these
















up on sunday
can I be done with his projects now?oh, by the way, louise is re-seaming practically dave's entire sweateras she so delicately put it, the job I did was really "bad."he finally got the sweater over his head and the arms were all bunched up - it looked like crap.she said that I needed to learn some better finishing techniques. I said, I'd love to, do you teach any classes?she said, oh no, I don't teach finishing techniques, that's my profession.......gotta love those yarn ladies.while we were at LPK on sunday, we discovered their ball winder!!!! what fun! I had a bunch of the yellow and blue yarn all tangled up - and we wound a few sections into balls - we came right home and bought one off the internet!

what's wrong with this picture?

I finished seaming dave's sweater and did the neck ribbingand then I tried to put it over my head and it got stuckand I laughed outloud because I knew that if it wasn't going over my head, there was no way in hell it was fitting over his
I knew instantly that I'd have to take a picture













of the last hiccup in this sweater for dave

fantastic first meeting

yarn, wine, yummies and silly talkit was great!what does it mean, when I wake up in the middle of the night, dreaming about how to seam the shoulders of dave's sweater together though...?no offense, honey, but I really want to be through with this project for youlooks like I'll be re-doing a scarf a made for him in my early crocheting days - it's a little wide....pzee's husband wants a golf vest, and dave said he'd like one, tooguess I'll be searching for a pattern today....

maiden meeting

that's what avril1980 called tonight's first south OC meeting! I'm excited to see what everyone's working on and get more seaming done on dave's sweater.last night dave said, don't you get bored of just sitting there and knittingsilly boy, NO! the project I'm working on now has the cables which definitely keep things interesting and I'm already itching to start the brown and blue pullover (for me!!!).

be specific, would ya?

Dave figured out the measurements of his sweater on Sunday. The pattern only had percentages - so he put his astro-physics brain to the task and discovered that I had knit the top portion of the sleeves incorrectly.The sweater is knit in stockinette, and the instructions said, "Decrease one stitch each end of needle every knit row 44 times." So I only decreased on the "knit" side. I should have decreased EACH side.So I spent probably about 8 hours yesterday ripping out sleeves and redoing them. They're done - they're correct - and now all I need to do redo the shoulder seams - I tried a method that looked really crappy - sew the arms in and do the ribbing for the neck collar.What a relief.I've already finished the right front of my cabled cardigan - and started on the left side. So far, so good!

becoming unseamed

I seamed an entire sleeve to the body - only to find out it wasn't fittingso I did some researchand I ripped out the seamnow I've seamed the shoulders togetherbut they look totally stupidI'm pretty close to taking it to someone professional who knows what they heck they're doingI'm very close to finishing the second sleeve, so I'll revisit seams when I finish that

oh to dream of england

I wonder what kind of yarns they have in englandI wonder what indian food tastes like in englandleed's is uk's favourite city - just the way I've been spelling favourite for yearsI'm in communication with a local knitter and am so excitedI am also making great progress on dave's sweater - working my first piece - the back - I need to knit 15" before armhole shaping - and I'm at least half way there!alicia saw her bday present here the other day - silly goose - she wasn't supposed look at THAT link!I always seem to get ahead of myself when I start a project - I start thinking about the next project and starting it - am I the only one who does this?

Cooler weather, still wearing my spring cardigan

Yesterday I spent much more time playing around with my new blog and trying to get pictures to link on knitty's board than knitting.In the evening we went for a bike ride and then I joined dave in the garage while he putted.A neighbor was there and commented on my ensemble. I was wearing my red jersey pants, a thin green tank top with blue straps, and my purple spring cardigan. I told her I was ready for fall, but not yet ready to give up wearing my cardigan. She saw my knitting bag and asked what I was working on. When I showed her the scarf she said that she wished she were going back to Japan because she could get me a whole bunch of yarn just like that. Ahhh, to dream.Dave read my blog yesterday and saw the bit on the Yarn Lady's bag sale. He said, we're going to be out of town that weekend. This is his funny way of saying, NO MORE YARN!Ha ha. You're so funny, honey.

blog + knit

guess who needed to create a new blog for her knitting adventures?it's more to have a home for pictures of my projects that I've completedand it was fun creating a homepage so that people who link to the pictures can find out a little more about what I'm up tocurrently I'm working on:a silk/merino sweater














for davea joann sensations angel yarn scarf














for me
on hold:the multi mini-ribbon pullover (hues of gold, green, orange)and the white shawl/stole for my neighborupcoming:dave's mom's black cotton shawlpatons divine soft earth hatucla golf club covers for davesomething with the brites green acrylic yarnyarn lady has her bag sale in december....!