I'll have you in stitches

Moving

2007-01-23T08:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry guys, but I have made a new home at the Davin Show. It's Davinshow.blogspot.com. Please come visit me there!

a hiatus

2006-10-26T23:35:00.000-04:00

My camera is officially dead, so i think that for a while at least, my blog might take a short hibernation.
Thanks to the people who read it, and i promise, when i get a new camera, or i get a chance to borrow one, i'll update. Till then, happy knitting!

How to make knitting exciting.

2006-10-22T01:10:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, life just takes all the energy out of me. I get home from work lately, and I'm beat and the time flies.
I haven't gotten too much done on the sweater, when I'm not so sleepy I'll post a pic, it's actually turning out nicely. The only problem is that the only time I get up the energy to hold my arms up to knit is on the T for about two seconds. This is also why my pictures have been either nonexistent or totally lame. I promise it'll get better soon.

One thing I was thinking about with this blog thing is that it forces you to think about knitting exciting things. After all, there is a whole knitterly world judging your every knitting move. This makes me feel like I should be knitting fair isle in short rows with cables, and quickly. It gives knitting deadlines, or at least you start to feel lame when there's no time or desire to knit, even though you're crazy about it.

And yet it's totally worth it, to know that out there in the world there are other people who feel the same way that you do about something that a lot of people don't understand. The pressure I feel with the blog helps me expand my knitting boundaries, and links me with an international group of amazing people who are so creative that it makes me want to be very creative myself.

I think I'll start to give myself little blogging assignments to make this more interesting. Tomorrow I'm picking up the fabric for my quilt and I'll start the chronicling of my adventures in that. Also, I'll begin my preparation for the holidays! I'm starting to think about how I want to wrap my presents, decorate, gift, and celebrate, and I want to include you all in that :)

alarm clock catastrophe!

2006-10-17T08:41:00.000-04:00

ok, so i'm just running late, but have you all seen the new dunkin donuts commercial? hilarious.
The fabric that i ordered online, big issues. they can't deliver to appartments with tiny mailboxes unless someone is there, and right now, i'm never there in the afternoon, so i had to have them send it to boyfriend of stitches's appartment. i really wish i could have started this week, so i'd have pictures... grr.
better news though, i decided on a lace pattern and started the repeats on my purple sweater, which is turning out to be a very make it up as you go sort of affair. I think the next sweater should be exactly like a pattern to make up for all the loosey gooseyness that's going on around here.

apples and quilts, but not apple quilts

2006-10-08T22:32:00.000-04:00

Not much is interesting on the knitting front. But i did do the most sterotypical New England thing in the whole world this weekend, I went apple picking and it was awesome!!!

There were a lot of kinds of apples and I'm pretty sure we tasted all of them. That was before i read the 1 apple per bag rule, but we had fun.

My favorites were the gala apples, which i'd tasted before, and is pictured above.
Another favorite, the Roxbury Russet (it's very Bostony haha) was nice and sour, and my first experience with a russet.

Russets have a distinctive textured skin, which is porus and dries out easily. They aren't the shiny types you generally see at the grocery store because they aren't really as attractive. but boy are they tasty!

The purple sweater is going well, and I'm going to start a series of pieces on my dip into quilting.

First step was shopping! my first quilt will be a present for my father featuring some Carolina panther's fabric i found

<a href="http://www.jandofabrics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=nfl00034">Fabric</a>
It's going to be a simple nine square quilt with black backing and white squares.

more updates later when the fabric comes, or i finish my ribbing!

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it's scarf time!

2006-10-02T18:45:00.000-04:00

as the ever fashionable zebra lamp shows, it's time to drape yourself in warmth and style!

except that that isn't a scarf (still the sweater ribbing), and it's going to be 80 on Wednesday. oh well, i've got about 3.5 inches done, i'm guessing around 2 or so more and then i'll be on to the as of yet to be determined lace pattern.

next time: top tens

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like i said, the knitout knitting in public, and solitary time

2006-09-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

The knit out was fun, I got there a little late, but met up with a fellow northeastern student and knitter, who i always seem to run into (and whose blog i forgot to get shoot!).

And then, i went and knit in the common by myself for a while, it was nice. However, it was interrupted by a whole family with a newborn sitting on my bench. They took over! It was very frustrating. Then they left and all was well with the world again.

there is something about being alone that i like. First of all the quiet is nice, but also, i'm just kind of a solitary person. and i feel like i haven't been alone enough lately. I'm the kind of person who needs about five hours of alone time a day. no joke. Lately since roommate of stitches and i are the only ones in the appartment, we feel like we have to spend quality time more. and then there's work, and the lit. mag., and all of a sudden i have 15 minutes of good quality me time a night.

and i think, wow. This is life. I'm getting old! With a 40 hour a week job, when will i really feel like i have enough me time? Will I always have to grasp at straws of relaxation? Oh how i wish that i could be a housewife:)

anyway, progress shot!

Here is the new sweater, lounging with a crocheted blanket that was left behind by one of our old dormmates.

it's going quite well, and i can't wait till i can try it on! i'm waiting till it gets a little bigger though

THis is an awesome video! <a href="http://www.thisisknit.com/2006/the-last-knit>thisisknit</a>
I love the animation!

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new beginnings

2006-09-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

the appartment furniture is finally complete! we finally got a couch, which is huge. somehow, without a couch, life isn't complete.

Isn't it glorious?

the great thing about is that it fits, since the old couch couldn't even make it through the front door.

this new couch gives me the opportunity to talk about 2 things. one, how much do i love the wood panelling on that wall in the living room?

I've had mixed reviews, but i think it makes it feel like a comfy den.

number two is, i adore <a href="http://www.ikea.com/">Ikea</a>. it's like disney world for adults! and the food in their cafeteria is awesome.

and lastly, the almost lucky sweater got cast on a couple of days ago, but lately i've been knitting soooo slowly, so it's not much to look at but i'll show you anyhow hahah

On the new couch of course

now on to knitting!

next time on haveyouinstitches:the boston knit out (pictures i promise), knitting in public, and solitary time

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on the plus side

2006-09-19T20:35:00.000-04:00

I finially finished the swatch, it looks all kinds of scary, but i've got some things figured out

which is good, this is going to be a wing it sort of sweater that i plan as i go. does anyone know a good raglan sleeve guideline?

i was going to knit it in the round, but the yarn store was closed when i got there today, so i might just give in to temptation and start the back now.

that's the best part of the swatch, and the best picture i took... sorry guys

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just when i think i can't love my appartment more

2006-09-19T07:42:00.000-04:00

i see something horrible.

after the bed bug scare (it was definitely not one). and the cockroaches, i said at least we don't have mice.
sometimes i just have to eat my words. Of course we have mice, or rather a mouse (i think) i saw it run by three times but it better damn well be the same one. if it is the same one, i'm shocked at the audacity of it to run by my bedroom door three times while i was hurling obscenities at it.

am i ready for this at 7:30 in the morning? no.

does anyone know when it's the landlord's turn to deal with this?

gah,i don't know if i can leave my bed. my only thought is that hopefully it's just because of trash day and it was scared out of its usual home.

in other news, there is a swatch drying from being semiblocked for the new sweater that's going to be made from yarn intended for lucky.

lastly, who's going to the knitout sunday? ME~!

a book that's over 50 years old, and a 40th post

2006-09-09T08:31:00.000-04:00

so, once upon a time stitches got a book like this with some needles
and she would often spend time staring at things in it like this
and then one day she actually learned to crochet
so she started her little doily, while thoroughly enjoying the chapter openings of the book, which included tips on luncheons and how to please her family and her man:)

the doily, by the way, is turning out a bit bigger than i thought it would, i'm only about half way through and it's already more than a foot in diameter hahah.

it's lovely though, and it's a present for Momo, so don't tell her, and if she's reading, i hope she'll pretend to be suprised come christmas time.

this is my first doily, and i wish it hadn't done it in a varigated yarn, but i thought it would turn out more interesting than plain white. instead it's just blotchy and icky. oh well, i am going to try to bleach it to mute the colors a little, and if not, mom's have to love artwork from their daughters.

ok, time to get ready to move, my furniture is coming today!

moving!

2006-09-03T13:20:00.000-04:00

After moving all of my stuff, all of bos's stuff, and trying desperately to unpack (I'm useless when it comes to organizing) I am exhausted. Roommate of stitches and i are finally in our first real appartment, and bos is in his with his cat. That is the good news. the bad news is that i found a scary bug today (i might be paranoid, but i think it's possible that it's a bed bug, i feel dirty). so there's a lot more work ahead of me, as i clean frantically, take a ginormous trip to the laundrymat and then either hope i don't find another bug, or catch a bug and send it in to a lab to have it analyzed, call the landlord, appologize for making him deal with this, deal with pest control people, and hope that the furniture that my dad brings up from home doesn't get infested and i have to start all over again.

other bad news, cupcake was too small, so it went the way of clover, and i'm starting it over. sketches of my new and improved clover to come soon.

i don't want to end with bad news, so good news= i'm a happy girl, my appartment is worth this hassle because of it's unbelievable cuteness, and i'm pretty sure i don't have to fumigate all my yarn.

thinking clean bug free thoughts,
stitches

I wish i had my camera!!!!

2006-08-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Because then i could give you a post with all of the ridiculous progress i've made in both cupcake and the plan for the new and improved clover. that being said, i do have a cute story to tell

the other night boyfriend of stitches (which i just realized is bos as an acronym, so from now on he is going to be refered to as such because i'm sure he'd enjoy being called boss. it sounds like a biker gang nickname hahah) and i were laying around and i was crocheting, and he said "how do you do that?". I was confused, i mean he'd seen me do it before, so he must have the gist. BUT he wanted more than the gist, he wanted to see the actual steps!

now as anyone with almost exclusive noncrafty friends and family, when they show an intrest beyond bugging you about when it'll be their turn for you to knit something it's kind of surreal.

so i started to show him the steps, and bos said "let me try it". those four little words are almost as sweet as when I got home the other day and dinner was waiting for me. anyway, i handed it over, and showed him where to insert the hook and how to do it. of course, like any other newbie he fumbled like he'd lost all of his motor skills. but i was excited, i could see us yarn shopping together (which he'll already sometimes do if i'll go to a book store with him), and working on projects and all that jazz. but after a stitch or two, he handed it back to me and said "I don't get it".

not in an i don't understand sort of way, but in an i don't understand how this could turn into such a habit sort of way. He's a very understanding boy, much more so than i can be, and he loves what i make, but it just isn't in his soul. i had forgotten that this happened once with knitting too.

that's fine, but i will still hold onto the idea that someday, he'll turn over to the dark side, and ask me to teach him to make a scarf and mean it. And in the meantime, maybe i'll try harder to understand his hobbies without poo pooing things that I just "don't get"

The frog pond

2006-08-19T15:14:00.000-04:00

I usually don't come here, it's a sad place, depressing really.

Lucky has been frogged for a couple of reasons 1) the lace pattern is confusing, this seems odd but for some reason, I just don't get it. I think it's the beginning stitches before the repeats. For some reason, I'm not sure how to line up the rows. I almost feel like it's so simple, and yet I'm just not getting it. I don't understand how to decrease and still keep the pattern. I almost feel like it would be easier to figure out a harder lace pattern than this!

2) I'm thinking it's not going to be flattering. I've looked at some of the finished products on the craftster knitalong, and it sometimes looks kind of unfitted and frumpy. Not always, but I think I need to revamp it to go with my frame...

so my plan is to do a couple of things to fix my problems. The first is that I'm going to expand the ribbing so that it will cling a little more to me, I'm going to revamp the lace because I find it odd that a sweater called lucky would have 3 leaf clovers and not 4, and I'm going to make the sleeves more fitted and 3/4 length sleeves because I always roll up my sleeves anyway.

proof

2006-08-15T08:20:00.000-04:00

I actually do finish things on occasion, and as proof, i give you the crappiest picture ever!

i'll make sure to have roommate of stitches or the boyfriend of stitches take some good pictures later, but this is proof that the fad classic is wearable! i'll have the official finished project post later!

THe newness

2006-08-14T20:47:00.000-04:00

It's August again, and in college, that means new student orientation. Which means, as always, that i start to miss the freshness and possibility of that first year. True by the end of it, i was crazy, had changed my major, and had lost more weight than i should have (i lost interest in food due to the lack of variety at the cafeteria), but I miss the interesting new people (turns out that interesting people become less interesting when they become part of their routine), and the idea that this was going to be the best time of my life.
Truth be told, it has been pretty great, but i'll always miss the beginning.

some projects are like that. For instance, the lace little number that i was working on when i started this blog.

it's sitting on that tool bar waiting, hoping that today will be the day that i pick it up and make some progress. Unfortunately what with the heat of the summer, and the way the newness just kind of faded. And yet, i think keep thinking, just like the capelet, that maybe today will be the day. I also keep looking forward to learning more, and gaining more life experiences and friends. I guess that feeling of possibility hasn't died, not for the project, or for my college life.

little note

2006-08-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

I have been getting annoying posts, so i turned on the word verification and link moderation, no biggie if it goes away i'll turn off the word verification. later!

A fight to the death! In my head!

2006-08-04T07:28:00.000-04:00

i woke up this morning to this

and of course I was shocked that two of my favorite yarns would choose to have a duel.

in one corner we have the new comer Mandarin Petit from norway, small and ultra thin (he's a four ply i believe), but tough.

in the other we have the famous butterfly from Greece he's large and in charge.

now this fight and others are going on in my head. I'm about halfway throughish with cupcake, when i buy this new yarn. the reason for this is that there is going to be tooonnns of driving this week, and i knew i'd finish my project. this is why i decided to start clover from snb nation. anyway, i couldn't run out of yarnthat.
there are also two other silent competitors and three in the wings ready to swoop in. the two that are competeing in pattern form are rusted root, and ms marigold, both from Zephyr which i just ordered. I still haven't decided on a yarn for the little lady, and i still haven't bought rusted root.
the other three are for people, the afgan for daddy, green gable for momo (i just love the zephyr patterns huh), and a sweater vest Roommate of STitches has been requesting. these will all also be added soon.

But i don't know i'm not really a multiproject multitasker! thus the deathmatch.

it looks like Butterfly is taking the lead!

but no, they've decided to be friends

in fact, i think they're growing quite fond of each other

Uh why didn't anyone tell me that Crochet is fast?

2006-08-02T07:52:00.000-04:00

ok, so i did hear that crochet was faster than knitting, but woah! it's faster than i'd imagined. It usually takes me much more than a day to finish the front or back of a shirt, which is essentially how long my cupcake is going to take. i'll post pictures when i get a chance, but it barely needs to go onto the in progress section, because it's going to be taken off so fast!

Dont' get me wrong, i still love knitting, but when i need something fast, i'm sure i'll turn to hooking. hahah

anyway, about the yarn from last post It's Butterfly Mercerized cotton. it's so clean feeling, and i think i'm in love with cotton in general, but this stuff is amazing (why is it that people don't like cotton anyway?) it's from Greece, which makes me feel like i should be looking out over the ocean when i knit. It also reminds me that my information about Greece is taken entirely from the Illiad and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The color is #62, and they are really more vibrant than pictures i can show you with my crappy digicam. (in case you were wondering about why all my pictures are so crappy, the view screen of my camera shattered,and i'm still trying to get up the nerve to buy a new one).

Oh and i forgot! Fad Classic was finished last night! I have to weave in the ends, and then i promise pictures galore!

A little retail therapy

2006-07-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

I had a crappy day, and i'm almost done with fad classic, so i took a trip to circles, and bought the yarn you see here (better pictures later) for a crocheted cupcake from happy hooker, it's going to be amazing! the game it is posing on is Therapy, a super fun eighties board game. Roommate of stitches and i have a passion for out of print board games. my personal favorite is scruples. anyway, beautiful yarn= happy stitches. I'll write more about this yarn later, but i will say it's from greece and it's lovely.

i love it when i forget about something and then it comes back to me

2006-07-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

Remember when i was talking about how i wanted to make a perfect knitting journal? all the criteria
turns out someone beat me to the punch! check this out! it's perfectly organized. it's amazing

best psa ever!

2006-07-25T07:36:00.000-04:00

I submit for your approval, the best safe sex campain ever, brought to you by the french. of course i don't think this is really on tv buuuut. Anyway, you'll have to see for yourself. I totally love the slogan at the end though.

you won't be dissapointed

in non-knitting news

2006-07-19T08:01:00.000-04:00

They turned off our water!

no it's not that i didnt pay the bill, I live in a dorm! We have no idea what the cause is, but it makes both stitches and roommate of stitches (especially ROF she hates when her morning schedule is screwed up) very cranky not to be able to shower or brush our teeth, or even flush the toilet.

They turned off our AC too but since lots of people live without AC it seems a bit rude to complain about that.

So I have this thing where i give myself 3 goals a week to accomplish, and make me feel like i'm good at life. This week they were write in my journal every day 1 out of 3 days (i'm not including sunday), floss every day 2 out of 3 days, and make sure i clean out my bag every day 3 out of 3. does it seem pathetic that i can't even accomplish these very simple tasks? I may have to repeat this goal next week. :(

the fad classic however is looking fab, half done with the ribbing, pictures soon.

even sad news makes me want to knit

2006-07-16T10:37:00.000-04:00

Or maybe especially makes me want to knit.
My parent's are splitting up. At 21 this means a lot less than if i had been 12 but it still makes me deeply upset.
i would probably have been upset for myself much more if i was 12, because it would mean a real change of life for me. Now the only things i'm upset about for myself is that Christmas will never be the same (my parents might still come together for christmas, but it won't be the same), and i'll have to work much harder to maintain a good solid relationship with my dad, because he doesn't like to talk on the phone much.

Mostly i'm worried.

I'm worried about my parents. I'm afraid they'll be lonely, and that they'll be unhappy alone. I know it's for the best for them, because they're unhappy now, but i'm still worried.

And so this means, that i want to knit for them.
For mother of stitches, a new sweater for her new life up north. One she can wear to work and will keep her warm in her new place. I'm thinking that Green gable should be good for that, it's cute and clean looking.
For Father of stitches possibly an afgan, (i've never knit an afgan (i might crochet it, i don't know)) so that he can always have something to wrap around him like a hug. Does anyone have a good afgan pattern? no wait, scratch that, i know i can find a bunch of good patterns myself, does anyone have a pattern that they particularly love?

It's funny how my first instinct is to want to cover my loved ones in something i made when i know they're going through a tough time. I want to be able to think about them when i'm knitting it, putting love into each stitch and row, and know that they will have it with them so that they always know someone loves them. i guess that's kind of the reason we all knit for others in the first place though isn't it?

a compliment

2006-07-13T17:58:00.000-04:00

so tuesday i was at work rockin my black cardigan, and one of the ladies complimented my sweater, and didn't ask if i'd made it! when i told her she was super impressed, and pulled acouple of other peoplewomen over to tell them! it was the highlight of my truely crappy day!
yay!

pictures! finally!

2006-07-06T23:16:00.000-04:00

here are some pictures from last week, the embroidery momo and i were working on when i decided to start working on my writing, and the progress pics of fad classic as disheveled as they may be. work is keeping me mighty busy, so i might be a little scarce. but i'll try to keep you all updated when i can!
I really have been enjoying this blogging thing, reading all of yours, and showing off my own stuff!
later!

The first Artist's date

2006-07-04T13:41:00.000-04:00

I went to the mfa yesterday for a little me time, where i watched people and enjoyed a beautiful exibit of photography by laura Mcphee, and i sketched a few things including a really pretty andre Derian, and one of their awesome rock posters from the 60's.

I noticed that people aren't terribly comfortable with sitting and staring at the art though, they stop,and then they shuffle on to the next. I wonder why they come? Is it because they want culture, or because they feel like they should, or because it's a tourist attraction, or because they really like it? i know i come partially to watch the people who come to the museum.
I think the general discomfort comes from the guards though, i always feel like i'm a couple inches too close the paintings, and that an alarm might go off, or worse, i'll be embarrassed by having a guard tell me not to touch. it always makes me really nervous.

if i ever have kids, i am going to try to make them more comfortable than i am in museums, i'll have them sit next to things they like for longer than a minute, and talk about what they see with them. it's kind of like people who grow up going to church are comfortable there, but since i don't know all the rules, and it's supposed to be such a solemn place, i'm always a little uneasy. i figure if my kids spend lots of time in museums they'll get used to them.

i think my next artist's date is going to be to go somewhere and make up stories about the people that pass. somewhere random that i can sit and not be noticed. so if you pass a little girl writing furiously in a green journal in boston, you'll know it's me :), either go about your business, or even better, do something weird so i have better things to write about.

Ps. On a knitting update, the Fad Classic is almost to the waist shaping stage! i took pictures on my mom's camera while i was home, so i'm waiting on them to show you!

A new beginning

2006-06-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

went home to Good old Asheville NC, after a horrible time on the airplane. we were delayed like a million times on the connecting flight, and i ended up glad that i didn't have my circular needles with me, or i might have come to an untimely end with a needle noose.
being home (read, at stitches's parent's home) always makes me wish for new beginnings in my real life. I was embroidering pillow cases with mother of stitches and we were listening to a recording of the artist's way, and i realized that i need to get in touch with my "inner artist", my "small still voice" if you will.
So i'm going to try to open myself up, write more, allow myself to be more zany. i'm going to put myself out there, and talk to more people, and work on me more. that means, starting tomorrow (today we went white water rafting, and therefore the creative juices are dead) every day i'm going to write three pages of reflection, and every week i'm going to go on a trip to nurture my soul.
I'm going to try new things that make my "heart smile" as bloggless sarah would say, and things that are "in my soul" as wendy from knit and tonic would say.
i'll let you know how it goes!

(knitting progress, had to rip out the fad classic once, but i've done both sides and joined them! it looks good, but i'm a little afraid that the stitch pattern is too busy for me, i've decided to wait until i'm almost done to decide, i can always rip it out! i love the cotton, it feels like a springy washrag... in a good way pictures soon!)

First Free Pattern!

2006-06-20T13:09:00.000-04:00

Here is the pattern for the headband (it's an easy way to use up scrap yarn)!
Make one!
Let me know what you think!

Click here for a great pdf file!

FO:the checkered alice headband

2006-06-19T15:05:00.000-04:00

yarn:oddballs

This was my first completely designed by stitches pattern (which will be available soon here), and i really like it, but it's definitely not made for 90 degree weather, because i used leftover wool. it also stretched a little too much, so i think i'm going to have to adjust before i put it out there in the world. but it's cute no?

i really really like the color combination, and i have a feeling come november it's going to save me from many a bad hair day.

What kind of knitter are you today?

2006-06-12T11:12:00.000-04:00

I wonder about why people knit things sometimes, as we probably all do, but what i really wonder about is why people choose the yarn they choose. THere are so many kinds! I think it depends on the reason you knit.
I for instance am a project knitter I don't have much of a stash, or tons of unfinished objects. I also care a lot about wearing what i make.

these two things equal a specific kind of knitter. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like yarn like other knitters like yarn. I don't knit for the yarn, i knit for the project. I feel like this turns out fewer losers for me. Sure i like to touch it, and a yarn store gives me heart palpitations, but my yarn choices tend to be based much more on the finished product of what i want to make, and what i want to wear.

I therefore don't tend to like fancy yarns. Novelty yarn is completely out, unless it's like, a stuffed animal or something. Crazy colors, also tend to be out, varigated yarn is only for socks, never for large projects.

I find knitters who knit because they like yarn very intersesting, and their projects are even more so. They are daring projects, that can be over the top, impractical, and usually very exciting. However, i fear that i will never be one of those people.

anyway just a thought.
bought yarn for the fad classic! (i'm doing a nice light grey so i think it'll be more of a classic classic) unfortunately i don't have the right sized circular so i have to take another trip to the dear old lys before i can do anything.
Oh and there's pearl buttons on the cardigan! pictures soon!

Finished: The simple black cardigan

2006-06-05T23:34:00.000-04:00

From: 1000 Sweaters
Yarn:4 balls of Lion brand Baby Soft Yarn in black
The origin: I wanted a black cardigan, but i'd never found one that worked for me.
What I especially like: The fit, it's pretty close, except that the arms are a little short.
What I should have done differently: Next time, i promise i'll learn to block things, i'm just such an impatient person, that i couldn't wait while it dried.
Total Cost for project: approxamately $25+buttons that i haven't bought yet

sorry about the crappy pictures, i was super lazy
i love my new sweater, it's in acrylic, but i don't like things to be too soft (i'm weird), and it's pretty comfy. Next time i think i'll splurge and go with a nicer yarn, but this was good for a second sweater.
It's a little lopsided in the front, but i think if i wash it and let it dry flat that will go away (next time i promise to block i swear!)

All in all, i think it's a winner. It'll get some wear.

I bought Knit and Tonic's Fad Classic pattern yesterday, but i don't have yarn yet for it, unfortunately so i'll have to make a purchase soon!

also, check out the new specs i think they're pretty nifty

I'm not dead yet

2006-05-31T12:31:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been so long, the anime post was just stalling, because the black cardigan is done! Ok, that's a lie, it still needs buttons, but i've worn it anyway. i've been irritating roommate of stitches to do a photo shoot, but we've both been busy. Maybe tonight will be the night

My lace capelet is coming along, but at the moment it seems like black hole knitting because it feels like no matter how many yarn overs i do it doesn't grow.

also, biggest news of all, i'm working on an alice headband pattern that i'm going to put up here as a free pattern. i'm hoping this little pattern will get my creative juices going so that i can really work on designing my own stuff. You'll see it soon, it's about halfway through its prototype phase.
anyway, i have to go enjoy the sun before it gets too hot and i have to hide from the sun for the rest of the hot season.

kiss kiss fall in love

2006-05-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

Let's talk about my other obsession.
This is what makes me the queen of nerds, the love for anime.
Lately a specific show has stolen my heart, and it's name is Host Bu.
This amazing show has all sorts of wonderfulness, including crossdressing, highschool seniors that look like they're five, twins who dig each other, and one crazy school club.
that being said, it's actually pretty pg and adorable!
Usually in anime it's about a guy who is essentially normal, and all the amazing girls that end up liking them, but it in this that's kinda backwards, which is nice.
and it's just so darn cute and heart warming!

an epiphany and then a huge let down

2006-05-19T10:01:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning and it came to me

Raspberry and a medium blue

That's what I wanted for my next project, the colors of my dreams, the raspberry would be nice and dark and red but not too red, and the blue would make it seem a little lighter and provide good contrast. i was so excited I got up and wrote it down. Just thinking about it gave me the shivers, i was so joyful and then it hit me.

I don't know what to knit with these colors! I know i want fairisle, I know i want a pattern of colors, but I don't know what kind of garment it will be!

If anyone has any suggestions of a good pattern for anything with these colors let me know!

It would probably make a terrible sweater, way too busy and scary, a scarf sounds unappealing, a blanket way too long. I think maybe tall socks a la http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/03/miniargyle_stockings.html but i don't know if i want to waste such a lovely color combo on something for my feet. I'm weird about socks still, I like socks that come in packs (I know, what kind of knitter am I?).

Anyway, i'm totally open to suggestions annnd I have one other question to ask. It was brought to my attention that I have no idea how to indent in this blog! I can't believe I hadn't noticed before. The girl typing before you is a tool. To recover from my tool state, I beg of you, if you're reading this help a girl out.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone!

2006-05-17T10:26:00.000-04:00

Oh my god, the sky is blue! BLUE~! i didn't think it was possible!
i'm going to have to bring my sleeves outside, which is an indescribable joy! I feel like it's been days since i could see colors! it makes me want to knit something way more colorful than my cardigan, but i'm not ready to abandon it yet.
My latest dilema, do i want to continue to knit wintery things during the summer so that they'll be finished by the time it's cold again? Or maybe switch to something cotton when it gets warm, regardless of the finishedness of my cardigan?
i'll have to think about it :)

Why I tell myself I don't want to learn to spin

2006-05-15T14:10:00.000-04:00

There's only one reason I don't want to learn to spin or dye my own yarn, Too Many Options!
If i don't know how to spin, then my options are slightly limited, I have to pick from what is available to me (which granted is nearly endless) for a project that is somehow useful. (i guess it could be useless, but i don't want to get into that).
Now, i know this still means a myriad of choices, but it gives me a little structure, which i need to get anything done.
I remember reading something (or seeing something? my memory is terrible) about a person who was hanging out with their boyfriend and his daughter and the boyfriend asks if the other person (i feel like it was David Sedaris, but i could be totally off, this person could easily been a woman) if they have anything for the child to draw with. So immediately he/she took out a ton of art supplies, and different kinds of paper, and the boyfriend laughed and took just a couple, saying that the child would be overwhelmed by more.
this strikes me as something i can take and use in my own life, just giving myself a few good options and leaving the rest aside. If i got to choose everything about my yarn, exact shade weight etc. I would go crazy, and the creativity i feel now would be stifled by too many decisions.
maybe that makes me crazy. who knows, but i think i'll just show a picture of my cardigan sleeve instead.

a birthday, a ball of yarn, and a party to plan

2006-05-12T15:51:00.000-04:00

Sorry, probably no picture's today.
Wednesday was my birthday, 21 years old! I feel so old now, i mean, what birthday's are big after you're 21? I think the next one to look forward to is when you're 65 and you start getting senior discounts.
21 was fun though, my dearest boy took me out to a wine cafe, where unfortunately they didn't card me. They did serve me delicious food though! we went here piattini. I got a wine flight, and got to try three different kinds of white. THey had the BEST ceaser salad, which suprised me, because although i enjoy ceaser salad, it's basically all the same, but this was top notch. i also got a vegetable ravioli, which was really really salty, but seriously tasty.
then i went home and got presents, which i love.
You can tell my bf knows me really well, because he got me an old board game (scruples), and a collander like this one. My mother laughed when she heard about these presents and said that a normal girl would have slapped him, but they were absolutely perfect for me.
all in all a very happy birthday.
In yarn news, i went through a ball of my Jaeger Mohair Art yarn on the capelet that i'm making, which makes me super happy, but at the same time a little nervous, i only have 3 balls and i might need a 4th. it's turning out really pretty and lacy and wonderful though, i'm excited.
I'm also excited about my birthday party tonight (i love stretching my birthday out for a week, hence the party on friday), we're going to have great food including cucumber cups and gazpacho, dill dip (i think i've finally found a good recipe that will actually remind me of Minnesota, they don't seem to eat dill dip outside of the middle of the country), cupcakes and daiquiris! after i get out of work i have a lot of cooking/drink mixing to do.
planning parties always makes me a little nervous, so i really hope this goes well, if it doesn't, i'm just gonna kick everyone out and knit :)

gardening in a dorm

2006-05-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

I have a long history of killing plants, I over water, underwater, forget to give sunlight, anything that can go wrong usually will. but i'm making my best effort to keep three plants alive. I've had my kalanchoe (which is in the picture), since december. It keeps flowering and flowering and it is super hardy. my primrose is about a month and a half old, and it dies every other day, well not dies, just goes into a minicoma until i remember to water it, it's starting its second flowering which amazes me and i'm really excited.
I just bought an ivy named viola, and she is wonderful.
anyway, it's spring, and i'm proud of my little green things.

fuzzy wonderfulness

2006-05-05T11:04:00.000-04:00

I love knitting lace! i'm making a capelet using "http://tmooka.net/blogs/stitchingirl/patterns/tigereyescarf.pdf>, and Jaeger Mohair Art in Blue Haze, which looked more gray when i bought it off of the internet, but i've learned that if i'm not going to actually touch something when i buy it, i should be open to some suprises when i get it. Anyway, it's delightful.
anyway, i love it, there's something about being afraid that you're not going to come out with the right number of stitches at the end that's very exciting.
I've been out of class for almost two weeks now, and when i haven't had to run around, allergies have been attacking me, and we just got real cable, so i've settled into a nice routine that keeps me inside and in front of the tv with yarn in my hands most of the day. That means two things, my roommate giving me sad, it's a beautiful day what is wrong with you, looks; and secondly that the sleeves of my cardigan and that beautiful mohair is turning into a very pretty capelet.

*

Links to things I like!

2006-05-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

I just added a bunch of links to blogs I love!
If there's any problem with the links, or I need permission to link to people's blogs, let me know and i'll be sure to change it!

The set!

2006-05-02T13:19:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time i fell in love with a verigated green skein of Manos Del Uruguay. I was looking for yarn to make my first pair of mittens, and it was so wonderfully soft and warm feelingand it made me happy.
What came first was a pair of flip topped mittens adapted from a mitten pattern i've now misplaced. I wish there was more overlap at the palm, and the felted more than i'd like but other than that they are wonderful.

Then came the hat, I had some Manos left, and i bought a skein of Woolease bulky (i think, i'm really bad at saving the wrappers), and i tried my hand at rediculously easy fairisle. I'd like to think it worked out pretty well, the green looks neat because each time it shows up it's a different shade.

then i still had a little of each left, so i made a fat short scarf, which was fun because i used size 15 needles with a strand of each in each stitch.

now i have my matching set! What is really interesting about it is that in each, the green interacts with the black differently so it hardly looks like the same yarn.
and here's me wearing it!

Early morning super girl

2006-04-28T08:28:00.000-04:00

I get a lot done at the edges of the day. Creatively I'm at my peak, probably because my brain doesn't have the power to be distracted by too many things at once. Which is why I woke up before 5 today and completely redid my blog, learning html the hard way, screwing things up as I went.
I'm still unsure about my color choices, a pretty brown and blue would be nice, or pinks, but for now I think I'll settle.

Black cardigan, which I think needs a nickname since it is just fitted cardigan in 1000 sweaters , now has two front sides, a back side and the beginnings of sleeves. I decided to run a cable up the sides because I remembered how bored I was with the first sweater's sleeves, they're going to look like this last cable on the page. The only problem is that they seem to be upside down? Is it possible that the picture here is upside down? I'd show you a picture of mine, but black and my camera don't go well together.

The perfect knitting diary

2006-04-27T23:28:00.000-04:00

On my way home from work I was thinking about a real life knitting diary to keep better track of everything I knit. I was thinking about something like my mother's date book. it has a few different kinds of preprinted pages, calander pages, to do list pages, and a couple of others, and more of these pages can be bought to add in.
My knitting diary would have to be a binder so that it could be added to without problem and there should be approxamately 4 kinds of sheets.
*The first kind would definitely be the planning page, or even broader, the designing page, it would have measurements and charts and ideas.
*The next page would be the completed object page, why second? you may ask, it's because i think of my project as what it will be like finished from the moment i start. this page would have to contain a little ziplock pouch to hold a sample of the yarn, a place for a finished picture and label from the yarn, date started, date finished and a checklist so that when you finish the parts you can feel even more accomplished.
*Then would come a copy of the pattern so that it could be reproduced, and after that the notes that you made while making the item so that if you ever make it again you won't make the same mistakes.
I think I'd like a diary like that, now if only i could create a diary that could organize my life like that, I know for a fact that my mom's planner isn't going to cut it.

The first sweater

2006-04-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

the first sweater was an experience.
but a good one, I learned a lot.
I used Lion's brand woolease, which was alright, i figured that i wouldn't want to use a really nice yarn for my first sweater in case i threw in the towel before it was finished.
it's basically the crew necked pull over from 1000 sweaters
it's a little big, but i wear it all the time, mostly because i spent three months on it, and i'm proud of myself.

anyway, that is the first sweater, i'm currently working on the second which will hopefully fit me better.

magic stripe socks

2006-04-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

magic stripe socks
Originally uploaded by starburn.

oh and on a lighter note, i've officially started taking pictures of my finished things.
This is my first ever pair of socks, magic stripy and wonderful in their glory. they're going away to melissa soon, and i think i might make her weave in her own loose threads.
i can't wait to try something more complicated!

i can't figure out anything!

2006-04-17T10:23:00.000-04:00

my dress that i was so excited about last night? guess what? i can't cut a pattern for the life of me, it's huge!!i think i'm doing something wrong, but i have no idea what! i don't think i picked the wrong size, but i think i could be wrong.
here it is on our dressform which is much bigger than me, and it's still big on her! i wish my roommate was home to make it better.

It's just so frustrating! the magic of sewing is not on my side, last night it totally was, but now i need to reconstruct this thing like woah, so i guess alchemy isn't on my side!! it's even big on our dressform! I'm going to go knit something!

Happy Easter!

2006-04-16T22:49:00.000-04:00

So, not much new on the knitting front, still workin a way at the right side of my black cardigan.
I worked in a plot to try to get my roommate's grandmother to want to knit her a sweater by knitting at Easter, and we hinted, but to no avail. It was a good Easter though.
Big news though! My roommate helped me with my first big sewing project, i'm making Prettiest dress ever! ! I'm making c only it's sage green and wonderful! i hope it'll be not too dressy, and i also want to embroider something on it, i don't know what yet, something not too too girly.
i need a lot of help, because i'm terrified of patterns, but once you get going, it's amazing what comes out.
Sewing is like magic, because you put all these seemingly unrelated peices together, and you come out with something useful. i think the same thing about knitting, but since it's slower it's harder to see the magic, with knitting it's zip zip zip, you have a bodice (not exactly, but you know what i mean)
ok, since this is a putting off a paper entry, i should get going.
This week is crazy, but next week, my finished creations photos are going to be put up for sure!

First real post! yay!

2006-04-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

Ok, so Hi!
Welcome to my blog!
I think for this first entry i'd like to make up some goals for this lovely blog.

I'd like to write once a week-about crafty things in general, especially fiber crafts, so my cooking posts won't be out of line, but no life stuff, because i want this to be somewhere that i keep track of my crafty life.
i'd also like to keep up photo albums of my finished, in progress, and dreamed of works, so that i can brag, be motivated, and plan all at once!

that sounds like plenty!

right now i'm working on a black fitted cardigan, and trying to figure out what i should do with this really pretty mohair that i have hanging around.