January 2008 Archives

I'm up to my old baby-quilt making ways again!  This time it's for Baby Ainsley.... who will be making her appearance in May!  She is a VERY long-awaited baby being born to good friends of ours, so I knew she needed a special present. 

All these red, pink, and orange-toned fabrics will be stitched into five columns alternating with strips of brown fabric to make the Stacked Coins Quilt from Last-Minute Patchwork Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.  It's such a beautiful book - Joelle Hoverson definitely knows her color theory!  (I hope I can do her design justice with my more reasonably-priced fabric selections!)  

PS for sewers and quilters - Jo-Ann's had all their fat quarters on sale for 99 cents last time I was there!  

A quick post for a quick project....

Project Details:

Pattern: Men's Rustic Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

Yarn: Assortment of Rowan tweedy yarns in neutral tones, plus some lime green bulky yarn from handpaintedyarn.com (Yay for stashbusting!)

Needle Size: Size 10 1/2 Denise needles, with the three longest cables connected together

Pattern Modifications: Matt wanted a long scarf, so I added about 50 stitches when I cast on. The scarf is probably about 6 feet long, when the pattern says it will make a 5-footer.

Time to knit: Two days! I think this may be the first project I've knit from LMKG that actually lived up to its "last-minute" name.

Final impressions: The pattern is not really a pattern, but it was a good starting point for a nice scarf. He likes it, so I'm happy!

ETA:  See that red sweater?  Cobblestone!  I also made him take some pictures outside, and it was pretty cold so he put on his Koolhaas hat.  He decided that anyone who wears that many handknit items must be a knitting hobo (link to his blog post about it - hee hee!)

Ravelry links:

Matt's Rustic Scarf

Men's Rustic Scarf Pattern

Wow.... I think this will be the first pattern out of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts that could actually be a last-minute gift. This isn't really a gift, more like a necessity - it's been so cold around here lately! Matt was desparately in need of a scarf to wear, so I started digging through the stash and Ravelry's pattern browser - It's just a bunch of random garter-stitch stripes knit longways, but I like all the neutral tweeds with the punch of lime green. The colors are a little off in the picture, but hopefully I can get a better photo once the scarf is finished.

Tammy is *this close* to finishing her Clapotis, so I'll be picking up a LOAD of afghan squares tomorrow at Knit Together. My tapestry needle is ready!

Recognize this scarf? Cindy did.  (If anyone's wondering, here's all the info on this scarf.)

I was on one of my very rare trips to Wal-Mart this weekend, stocking up on light bulbs, paper towels, and other random things. It's been really cold, so I was walking around the store in my red coat and scarf, just like in this picture.

My husband and I were standing in the checkout line, when the woman in line behind us walked up and asked me if I made my scarf. "Yes, I did!" I proudly said (thinking to myself "she must be a knitter" and noticing her own scarf that looked like it may have been hand knit.) Nothing too strange, just two knitters connecting over a common hobby.

Then she said, "You're Beauty School Dropout, right?"

Oh my gosh! How cool is that?! I squealed "I'm famous" to my husband (since he thinks the whole knitting/blogging/Ravelry thing is a bit much), then Cindy and I introduced ourselves, and proceeded to talk yarn and our LYS, Simply Fibers.

I still can't get over it...  how cool.  Have you ever met a blog reader "in the wild," that is, not at a yarn shop or fiber festival, but just out and about with non-knitter people?

This Friday my LYS hosted its monthly Knit In, where the store stays open til 10pm and there is always a special sale! I did my best to distract Tammy from her warp-speed Clapotis-knitting, but I didn't have much luck. She has a funny post about it here. Looks like I better get ready to start sewing up afghan squares!

I did manage to get a nice start on the second Firestarter sock, since I'd finished the first one Thursday night. I hope I can remember how I did the short-row heel over the cable pattern.....

Slowly but surely wins the race.  I'm in no hurry to finish this project, but I'm enjoying the soft slick yarn and dropping the stitches.

But... Last Thursday at Knit Together, I might have "bet" Tammy that she couldn't finish a full-sized Clapotis by the end of January. She insisted that she could, and I was sure that it was impossible. (She also has to knit a baby sweater out of sock yarn for a baby shower this month, and she wants to finish about 5 Lizard Ridge afghan squares.)

Anyway, I decided to make things interesting - I said that if she finished it by the end of January, that I would sew together all her afghan squares AND knit a border. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?! Of course NOW she's going to get it done! So now I'm on a mission to distract her from that knitting.

I've been suggesting other projects she should work on, and I tried to get her to rip back a couple of rows tonight when she made a mistake. Any other ideas?

I love it when a plan comes together! Ever since Kate suggested that I knit the Firestarter pattern, I've been thinking that my Fleece Artist "Eye of the Tiger" yarn would be perfect for it - it's so fiery!

I'm really only using the stitch count and the cable pattern. There is a really neat feature in the original pattern where the cables go down the heel and interlock to avoid any holes. I knit the socks toe-up, because I wasn't sure how much yarn I would have, so I had to get a little creative with the heel. 

 

Since short-row heels (like this one) have you knitting short rows over half the stitches, that means I was knitting and turning in the cables on both sides. It was the first time I'd ever tried to knit short-rows over a pattern, but it ended up working out okay, and I even got to cross the center cable in the first row after the heel was turned, which closed up the last little hole quite nicely. I hope I can recreate it in the second sock!

Tammy and I are both trying to knit a pair of socks per month in preparation for the inevitable splurge at our visit to The Loopy Ewe in April. All I need to do is add some ribbing and I'll be right on schedule - yippee! 

Yes, that's right - I am getting all blobby so I really need to start working out again! I think trying to post every week will - hopefully - keep me on track! I want to do another triathlon in May, so my plan is to do some base training this month, focusing on swimming to avoid the bad weather.

Every once in a while, I check the goings-on of the Ozarks Multisports Club just to see what other triathloners in the area are up to. About a week ago, someone posted that the Springfield Parks Department was offering a "Stroke Mechanics" class.

I went to the first class last night and it was really great! There is only one other person in the class, who is another woman that I've seen at lots of local races. The instructr really focused on helping us improve our stroke efficiency and form. She's keeping track of all sorts of stuff o she can tell us how we're progressing over time. We swam 950m, which is pretty far for me.

Now I just need to get excited about running.... biking will have to wait for a little warmed weather (except the exercise bike at the gym - gag!)

So.... we had some heavy rain this afternoon, no biggie...

Then after work I was innocently sitting in my hairdresser's hair, with the hairdryer blaring in my ears, when the owner of the salon comes out and tells all the stylists to stop working because there is a tornado coming.  They kind of laugh, but shut off the blow dryers, and what do you know?  Tornado sirens.  I'm guessing that was about 5:45pm.  Now it's 8:45 and they haven't stopped for more than ten minutes.  There were at least 4 big red swirls headed my direction (they're going right up I-44 - aka Tornado Alley) and I think three have passed so far.  Luckily nothing too crazy has happened.  After hunkering down with another customer and 4 hairdressers, I drove home after the first storm passed.  No sooner than I started to open the garage door did the next round of sirens start sounding.  Now I'm hanging out in the lower level of my house, which is not a basement, but it's the best thing we've got.  Matt is watching an episode of Prison Break on his laptop, and I'm doing a little knitting, podcast listening, and reading.  I can't listen to KTTS (the radio station with the - let's call it "most thorough" - weather coverage for too long without getting freaked out, so I turned it off.  I figure I can rely on the sirens and stuff hitting the house to alert me to anything really important.  

And just in case you were wondering, you should locate your workbench in case of a tornado. 

THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS IN A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A
WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS
AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN
INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. USE BLANKETS OR PILLOWS TO
COVER YOUR BODY AND ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

Maybe I should go burrow into the yarn stash? 

 

A random assortment of stuff to start the week:

1.  (No, it's not a knitted thong!)  I started a new Clapotis last Thursday at Knit Together.  Tammy, Kate, and I are doing a knitalong of this pattern.  I wasn't sure at first - I kept worrying about the curling, but I think it will be fine once I drop the stitches.  

2.  I found a new podcast - Sticks & String.  The bad news is that he's taking a break.  The good news is he has 50 episodes to keep me in podcasts until Nicole & Jenny come back! 

3.  New Year's stuff - January 1 is an arbitrary date, but I can also use a bit a self-improvement.  I'm using Joe's Goals to track how much I'm: eating my veggies, working out, reading, and not drinking Diet Coke (my carbonated beverage of choice).

  

4.  The Firestarter sock is coming right along.  I think it's going to be the project that travels around in the car with me.  No, I don't knit while driving, but sometimes I get stuck waiting when I'm out adn about, and I am always glad if I happen to have a knitting project in my car. 

5.  Exercise.  I know I've said it before, but I really am going to try to start posting regularly about my running and triathlon training.  I'm planning to compete in another sprint triathlon this May, so I've got to get back in shape. 

 6.  Sewing!  My mom got me Joelle Hoverson's "Last Minute Patchwork & Quilting" book for Christmas.  Lookee!  I made a pincushion!  It really was a quick little project.  I think I'm going to try a tied quilt next.  

Project Details:

Pattern: Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole by Kathleen Power Johnson in Scarf Style

Yarn:  Reynolds Odyssey, colorway 443, 6 skeins (100% merino wool with varigated plies that create the color changes)

This is really cool yarn - I got it in the clearance bin at Simply Fibers, so I hope it's not discontinued or anything!

Needle Size: Size 7 Denise needles 

Pattern Modifications: I only cast on 32 stitches to make this a scarf instead of a wrap (thus, Lady Eleanor-ette!)  I probably could have gone down to 24 stitches, as this is still a pretty wide scarf. I also knit on a smaller needle size to accommodate a smaller gauge yarn.

The scarf is very long, which I love, but I'm thinking you could probably knit this scarf with 4 balls of yarn instead of almost 6 if you made it narrower and a little shorter. 

Time to knit: About 1 month.  Knitting entrelac is addictive!  This pattern makes it really easy - just follow the instructions (even if they don't make sense at first) and you'll get it!  For me, the set up row was really confusing, but once I had knit a couple of the regular rectangles, the technique was very intuitive.  

Final impressions: Awesome.  This scarf is really soft, and the length makes it easy to wrap at least twise around my neck, which is essential for a cold and very windy walk from the employee parking lot to my office every morning and evening.  (Airport = no trees = mucho wind!)

I originally planned to make a different scarf with this yarn, but I think this turned out to be a winning combination.  I've gotten tons of compliments on it.  (It probably doesn't hurt that there are several crafters that work in my office now.  I think we've got all the major ones covered - knitting, crochet, quilting, and cardmaking.)

I haven't blocked it yet, so the ends are a little wavy, but it doesn't bother me too much.  I have actually been thinking about adding I-cord along the two ends, to make them settle down a bit.  I recently learned how to do I-cord cast-on and bind-off (scroll to bottom of page), and I think that might work really well for this pattern. 

Ravelry links:

My Lady Eleanorette

Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole pattern

Reynolds Odyssey yarn

Scarf Style book 

Project Details:

Pattern: Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert, available as a free download from Interweave Knits

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran in color 783.  This yarn is really pretty - it has a heathered look to it that I love.  But, it is a little scratchy due to mohair content, and I worry that it may pill.  But I figured since this ismore of a jacket that will always be worn over another shirt, it will be okay.  

Needle Size: Size 5 Denise needles (this is quite a bit smaller than the needle called for in the pattern, but everything I've read said that row gauge was essential for this pattern, so I just kept going down until I got the right row gauge.  Plus, I knit pretty loose so it didn't feel like I was fighting with the yarn to knit it on smaller needles.)

Pattern Modifications: I added stitches to the width of the back panel of the sweater as suggested by the designer on the Sunrise Cirlce KAL blog, in this post.  (The KAL is closed, but the site is still up and it has tons of great information.)  Essentially I knit the back using the stitch count for one size larger, but the row count for the size I was knitting.  It worked pretty well, although the fronts still don't overlap as much as they do in the pattern picture.  I think I should have knit one size larger, and still done the wider back section.  I think I read somewhere that the model in the picture was a lot smaller than the model they originally planned to use, so the fronts overlap a lot more on her than the pattern was designed to do.  

Time to knit: Actual knitting time was not that long, but I started this sweater in May 2007, and didn't finish it until December 2007.  Oh well, hooray for finishing a hibernating project! 

Final impressions: This sweater (originally intended for me) ended up being a Christmas gift for my mom.  (Doesn't it look cute on her?)  At some point I posted a progress pic of it, and she commented how much she liked it.  She loves it and she says she's found the perfect outfit to wear it with.  Everyone at my grandma's house was pretty impressed when she opened it, too.  There are darts on the back to provide a little waist shaping, and I found it interesting that all the non-knitters were most impressed by those darts!  

Ravelry links:

Autumn Sunrise Jacket

Sunrise Circle Jacket pattern

Yet again I have gotten horribly behind on updating my finished projects.  So, don't think that I'm some superhuman knitting machine that finishes all this stufff superfast. 

Project Details:

Pattern: Generic Mitten Pattern by Adrian Bazilla of HelloYarn, using 2 repeats of this 11-stitch pattern.

Yarn: Woolly West Happy trails in sagebrush (green) and bandana (red)

Needle Size: Size 4 DPNs

Pattern Modifications: This pattern lets you do whatever you want as far as the design.  I wanted something that looked like holly to go with the Christmasy colors of the yarn that I had for my second-ever stranded knitting project.  

Time to knit: About one month - started and finished in the month of December.

Final impressions: There are things I would change about these mittens, but I love them because they are soooo warm and because they are the project where I taught myself to knit with a color in each hand (knitting english with one yearn and continental with the other).  Onward and upward..... more mittens!

Ravelry links:

Holly Mittens

Generic Mitten Pattern

I Make Mittens Group 

I did this meme last year, and it was pretty fun, so here it is again:  The first sentence I blogged in each month of 2007: 

January: Hi all - I'm back from Colorado!

February: Here it is - the much-anticipated "ice storm sweater"!

March: The most ingenious plan for solving my sock dilemma was coverting the pattern to resoleable socks - that way, the top of the foot would match the leg, but the bottom could be a different color, allowing me to stretch the precious STR a little further.  (2008 Zarah sez:  yeah.... that didn't happen!)

April: You know I love a good yarn sale.

May: (Blog title:  Lace is fun!)  Well, let me qualify that...Lace is fun, when:

- you charted out the pattern and have a magnetic chartkeeper to keep you on track

- you've learned the pattern so you don't have to rip out and deal with the yarn splitting

- you seem to be making pretty quick progress, even though you're using size 2 needles!

June: The Sunrise Circle Jacket is taking shape!  (2008 Zarah sez:  Too bad I didn't finish it until December!)

July: First, I want to send out a special thank you to my knitblogging buddies Tammy and Brianne.  (2008 Zarah sez:  Yep, I love my knitting buddies!  2007 was definitely the year of new knitting friends.)

August: That's Monkey-sock love, you sickos!

September: Woo hoo!  I love days off, especially when they make a three-day weekend.

October:  I  can't believe it's October already, but there is one awesome thing about time passing so quickly - it's Socktoberfest again!

November: My big event for Vacation Day 3 was driving to Taos to visit La Lana Wools.

December: Remember that pretty blue and green yarn I got from the Loopy Ewe?  (2008 Zarah sez:  MORE Monkeys!)