Yarn Crawl

Weekly Update

It has been one crazy week at work!

My only update is that I am up to the armholes on the first sleeve for Ines! I'm hoping I can get both sleeves done over the weekend, and maybe even sew it together. But I'm not going to kill myself to do it.

Here's a progress pic!

I also have a bunch of jewelry supply stuff coming in the next day or so, and the Fitted Knits Along starts officially on Sunday 4/1. I'm hoping I can get back into some sewing too.

Have a great weekend and happy knitting!! I really need a weekend!

Josephine Pullover

On my never-ending search for my first crochet sweater project, I saw the Josephine Pullover in the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet.

I think this is the one, as it's half knitted, half crocheted, so will be an easy transition.

I also found the yarn on WEBS (I'm a geek, I bought the same color they pictured in the pattern photo) on sale for about $35 including shipping, so I snapped it up. (Yeah, that whole "knit from my stash" thing? Kinda out the window.)

I got the yarn yesterday - isn't it pretty? I can justify buying it because I don't have enough 4-ply yarn to make this sweater. And it was on sale. Right?

Thanks, Lianne!!!

Lianne in my Secret Pal 10 group sent me the nicest surprise as a thank you for helping host the exchange this time!! Check this out - she even read through my blog to find out which yarns I like and picked me out a perfect skein of Noro Cash Iroha in Bluebonnet.

This is truly in keeping with the spirit of the Secret Pal exchange and I was blown away by her thoughtfulness. What a great gift and thought!

Here's the yummy skein:

I'm thinking this will make a great pair of fingerless gloves or maybe a small lace ascot. What do you all think? Any other project ideas?

Green Gable - Done!

I finished Green Gable this morning - I think it turned out perfectly!  I am wearing it with some lower rise jeans so it isn't as short as it looks. Also - mental note to self - wear cami with built in bra when actually wearing this (LOL) as any bra shows through.

I also got the back and front done on Ines! It was a super-productive knitting weekend. Here's the back

and front:

I measured the pieces against a sweater I like and made sure I measured this yarn hanging (as they suggest, as it is heavy, being linen) and I think it is going to fit. I never entirely know when I knit things flat, but I tried to take all the precautions.

I also got my beading stuff from Fire Mountain Gems

and attempted to start Bauble (that is my start at stringing the beads).

I never worked with seed beads before and it is a little tedious, but I think the stringing beads is something I can do here and there when I feel like it, after getting that tip from the pattern's designer. Plus, I can't wait to start knitting with the beaded strand, so that is motivating!

I also want to work my way through the projects in this book as it gives excellent step-by-step directions!

Let's see - what else did I do this weekend? Friday night I went to a Spanish wine tasting with Lisa, but it was really short and we were on our way with our purchases within a half hour or so. Jim had some friends over Friday night and they were up late, so Saturday morning I took this pic of him sleeping in, in my knitting room, curled up with Gilda! (Sorry babe, for taking your picture while you were sleeping, but I couldn't resist!)

Yesterday I got a mani and pedi, went tanning and last night Jim and I went to Carlucci's for dinner. Today we did a late brunch at the Cheesecake Factory to use a gift card we had, and I had a great frozen Bellini (YUM).

At some point throughout the weekend, I studied for my midterm for class (tomorrow night) and also started a new audiobook, that I'm now halfway through - The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I was reading blogs and saw that someone was reading this (can't remember who now for the life of me) and then remembered it when I saw it on Audible - so picked it for one of my monthly selections. I really like this book, especially its theme of secret keeping and how harmful it is to a marriage and other relationships. That really is true, and I found myself sharing whatever was on my mind with Jim this weekend, no matter how silly or how much I thought I might get a negative reaction (just stupid things like where I wanted to eat, etc.) and it was amazing how I got a positive reaction every time. Nice. I like books that really make me think and change my behavior, in a good way.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and lots of knitting!!

Weekly Update and New Vogue Knitting!

Last night I worked on Green Gable for a few hours and now I only have about three inches left on the body to go, plus those few rounds on the sleeves.  So I am almost DONE! I hope I don't run out of yarn. The pattern says you only need two skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece for the smallest size, and it seems like I have a decent amount left to do what I have remaining (over 1/2 skein.) I should have a modeled picture of it by the end of the weekend unless I get distracted by something else...

One thing I learned this time with the BSCF is always to pull from the center on it.  I know people always say to do this, so it might not sound like rocket science (and it's not anyway) but someone else had told me that the skeins were unmanageable if you did pull from the center on this yarn, so I always used the outer strand of yarn.  Big mistake, because I always had a tangle-y mess about 2/3 of the way through the skein.  I had even tried re-winding these on the ball winder, and that gave me the same result.  But if you just use that center pull strand (do NOT pull out all the other yarn that's in the center) there is no tangling whatsoever, all the way to the last inch.

Anyway, enough reflection on how to work with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

I got my latest issue of Vogue Knitting and I like a number of the patterns again this time.  It seems like I never knit anything from this magazine, even though I like the patterns. I don't see a lot of other people knitting their patterns out here in the "blogosphere" either but do see lots of Interweave Knits patterns being worked on and even "knitted along" on - I wonder why this is.  Maybe because they are not usually presented in a one-piece, seamless option like many of the Interweave Knits patterns are. Or maybe it is that the IK patterns are just that much better.  I ALWAYS have something I LOVE in IK, whereas VK is not so consistent. 

Anyway, here's what I like in this issue of VK:

Can you tell I love lace designs?! (Sorry about the flash spot...)

This suit - but particularly the shape of the top. I have a few fine-gauge silk sweaters like this from Eileen Fisher that I really love for work. It'd be great to create more in different colors.

This tank is different - I like the multidirectional look of the texture:

This simple tank:

And their one crochet pattern - although I wouldn't put the bows on:

Have a great weekend, and Happy Knitting!!

New "Stuff"

I did a little shopping over the weekend and got some new "stuff" - some crafting related, some not.

First the knitting/crochet/beading related: The new Filatura Di Crosa pattern book.

I love the cover sweater and these: (the one on the right in the left picture)

both of these:

I also got the new Tahki crochet book

and love both of these patterns:

I also ordered this from Monica for my makeup

Check this out - I had so many compacts with all these blushes and eyeshadows - look at this organizational solution:

See the three ring binder setup?? Each of the Prescriptives makeup colors come in a separate metal container (after prying them out of the cases I had them in) - which then sticks to a magnetic binder "page" in the Trish McEvoy system. Each page has a lucite case cover that snaps closed and has binder holes that then go into her binder. I love love love this. So good for travel and for organizing my makeup at home. I need to get another page for the eyeshadows I have from when they used to be a circular shape (not that long ago.) My friend Monica turned me on to this - I was like, here's my Nordstrom account number, just order me whatever you think I need to organize this mess!

I'll talk about the new Vogue Knitting later as this is getting to be a crazy post, picture-wise.

In Green Gable news, I tried it on last night and determined I don't need to do any more decreases for the waist.

I think because I already made the smallest size, it fits perfectly right now and seems to be enough decreases for the waist. I will be doing the increases for the hips though once I get to the waist (5" from where it was when I tried it on.)

I'm not very long from my waist to the top of my legs, so my hip area is shorter than average (because I'm only 5'1" - to be expected I guess.) So this has created some issues in some ready to wear clothes (if they're not petite) because my hip area starts sooner than it would on a taller person so the hips on the skirt might be too loose for me lower down where (a taller) someone else's hips would be, but too tight at my actual hip because the person who the garment was designed for wouldn't have her hips there. Goofy but it's something I just figured out.

Oh, and if you made it this far - Jim quit his job yesterday, and made that his last day as he'd only been there since January.  So he was home by 11 am after going out for some breakfast by himself at his favorite little diner nearby.  So today I don't have to be at work at 6:45 so that he can drop me off (as it is raining today and wouldn't be a good motorcycle day).  So I could blog, and knit, and work out (up next) as I got up at 5:15 anyway.  Usually I can do one of those but not all.  I do live about 2 miles away from work, so I don't have a commute time to speak of, for the first time in the history of my career.  We moved to a building in an office park not far from my house a few years back and I was very very happy about it.

And, it was 70 degrees (F) in Chicago yesterday and my tulips are starting to come up. Life is good!!

Non-Wordless Wednesday

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, although it's only been since Saturday!  I was really on a roll there with the daily blogging, but it's been really busy lately so blogging has been the first thing to go.

I'm still working on Green Gable - just finished the waist decreases that they specify in the pattern and thinking of trying this on again to see if I want to do more.  I think I read that other people who made this wish they put in more shaping than the pattern said.  Here's a progress pic, but not one on me, as I haven't gotten around to trying it on again yet:

I also worked on Orangina over the weekend but haven't made significant progress. It's at work, so I don't have a picture, but I have about six inches done on the back now.

I started a new project last night from my stash - Ines from the Linen Print Collection.  I followed the directions as written and didn't convert them to do the front and back in the round - unusual for me lately - but  I really needed something that will work up quickly.  Plus, I haven't worked with three colors in one project before (even though it is just striping) so I figured I would deal with one thing at a time and just knit the pieces flat.

Here's a pic - I like the way this is turning out so far!

I also went to the Knitting Nature trunk show on Saturday with Lisa and we tried on a lot of the garments.  I still like the Hex Coat, and I would make the smallest size that they had there to try on - but I would make it four hexagons shorter and four inches shorter on the sleeves. I don't know if I would make any of the other garments except maybe the scoop neck one that is light tan (can't remember the name.) That one fit well in the smallest size too.  I also bought two new Filatura di Crosa books while I was there, one entirely with crochet patterns.  I'll show pics later this week.

On Sunday, I bought fabric for my online class at Patternreview.com that starts April 1st, and bought beads to make Bauble from the last issue of Knitty. I realized I didn't have an appropriate beading needle to string the seed beads though, so I ordered one (and some other stuff) from Fire Mountain Gems.  I love their catalog - Lisa gave me hers and it is amazing.

That's pretty much the knitting/crocheting/sewing/beading update.

Nonknitting -

Saturday night we had some friends over for St. Paddy's Day and ended up polishing off most of these (warning vegetarians - this is the section in the program where we show gratuitous pics of meat)

Look at the size of those pots!!!

Also, Jim is probably resigning today.  Lots of backstory, but the short explanation is that the powdercoating industry is not his bag.  So on to the next challenge!  I for one have missed him being around here doing all the things he always did for the past 1 1/2 years and coming home for lunch with him.  So we have to figure out what his next challenge is.

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Knitting Road Trip

Attention Chicago metro area knitters!

Deanna of Licensed2Knit is organizing a road trip to Threadbear, a fabulous yarn shop in Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday, May 5th.  I have not been there, but it sounds like a fun time, and I signed up!  She has spots for a few more people, and wants to charter the bus for the trip next week, so check out her blog posting for more details and contact her ASAP if you'd like to come along!

Green Gable - Removed Sleeves!

I think Green Gable is fitting pretty well after removing the sleeves- I would still have 3" more to go on it to cover "the girls" according to the pattern, which should work out right.  The big thing is that the shoulders fit and I don't have gapping this time at the neck with version 2.0 in the smallest size.

Here it is off the needles:

I also got my Brown Sheep Cotton Fine to work on Orangina some more...

and my free Prescriptives makeup for having the party a few weeks ago!