Monday, February 26, 2007

I finished one Glitten recently and was thinking I'd rather start something else than make the second one. However, I forced myself to sit down to cast on the second glitten. Lo and behold I realized I had misplaced my pattern. I took it with me on a weekend trip but was certain I had it when I got home to refer to as I finished the top. If anyone has a copy of the Glitten pattern by Shelley Kang it would be much appreciated!

Here's some pictures of my lonely Glitten:



Sniff...it's so sad. I have hope the pattern will turn up. My other option is making the second one from memory with the first one as a model. We'll see.

I went up to WEBS this weekend to get more Tahki Ghost Yarn for my vest in progress. When we got there I couldn't find anymore in the right color. An employee told me they took most of it to Stitches and would bring back what didn't sell on Tuesday. I was ready to cry! I went up and down the aisles trying to find some other yarn to cheer me up. Then I came across the Ghost Yarn in a different section and they had 3 balls plus a mystery bag of samples. They didn't charge me for the sample bag since it had no tag and considering how much $$ I was laying out.

Here are updated pics:




When I got home I realized the sample bag contained one full skein!
Unfortunately those skeins I picked up this weekend are a different dye lot than my original ones. The new ones have a brighter pink and a darker shade of tan. Since I'm using them all for the top I'll just consider it a design feature!

I finished knitting the body. Now I just have do the trim on the neck and armholes and darn in all the loose ends and I'm done! Last night I tried seaming the shoulders using the same yarn and mattress stitch. This looked terrible due to the bulkiness. I redid them using a worsted weight pink yarn and a three needle bind off which looked much better.

Ok, I know I'm an official blogger when my roomate no longer questions why I'm posing my knitting and taking close-ups. Although she did look up when I called out to my vest "Smile for me. Now give me a pouty look. Ok, let me see mad; real angry now!" I don't think my vest will have much of a modeling career since it just sat there like an inanimate object. Oh well :-)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Here's a little raggedy-looking heart I whipped up for JF for Valentine's Day:


I bought this yarn over a year ago when Goldman's Yarns in White Plains had their Going Out of Business Sale. As much as I hate to see LYS's close you really can't beat the prices when they're trying to unload all their inventory. It's Farfalla by Filatura Di Crosa. I don't see it on Yarndex so maybe it was discontinued. I bought a few skeins in black to make a shawl and this one skein in red I thought I could use as a trim. They've been sitting in the stash so I thought it couldn't hurt to use a little red to knit up a heart.

In other Knitting Knews I finished one Glitten and made a lot of progress on my bulky Ghost vest:
I'm almost ready to bind off for the armholes. The best part about doing a vest-no sleeves! This bulky yarn is dangerous. It goes so fast I don't know how I'll ever be able to knit socks on size 3's again. I'm almost out of the fourth skein I had in my stash. The weekend after President's Day weekend JF and I are making a trip up the Berkshires and I can pick some more up at WEBS. But I don't think I can wait! I may cave and put an online order in this weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

I've been promising some pics of recent FO's and in an effort to avoid showing pics of my Glittens with another two rows done I'm finally going to deliver!

Here are some pics of the finished "Wine Country Sweater" or "Purple Sweater" as I've been referring to it as. I finished it in December just in time to give to JF's dad for Hanukah:



Here is Mr. F admiring his newly purchased yarn......and here he is modeling the finished sweater:


Here's the "Racing Stripes Scarf" JF and I designed together this past December:
I knit it using Aussie Wool I bought at Seaport Yarn. JF loves NASCAR and since Jimmie Johnson is his favorite driver we used the colors of his race car. It took trips to many yarn stores to find the right colors and wool that was soft enough for a scarf. I guess Seaport Yarn really does have everything!

This wool comes from Australian sheep and then it is dyed in China. The language barrier is apparent when the the color Mystic Purple is obviously blue and the color Onyx is green instead of black like the stone. I also don't quite understand why the yellow color I used in the scarf is called Honeymoon. Any guesses?

I knit the scarf the long way on 40" circs and was relieved when I bound off that it came out the length we had planned on. I had to redo the fringe on one side after getting a little overzealous with the scissors trying to make the ends even. He's been wearing it everyday so I guess it's a winner!


Monday, February 05, 2007

So I have a new hobby now-beading! Check out my purchases from this weekend:
I bought all kinds of beads and pins and tools and this case to organize them.
And I made these neat stitch markers. It took me a few tries before I was able to get it right but then I was addicted!

I used a tutorial from the Fall 2006 issue of IN Knitters. They said to use "T pins" for the base. JF took me to three different craft stores before we located some. When I got home it didn't seem to be working. After checking out a few people's blogs I realized they meant to say "head pins." I actually e-mailed the editor of the magazine about it.

Fortunately I had bought a package of "eye pins" which are similar and I used those to make the stitch markers above. I quickly ran out and was having beading withdrawal. When I went to my office at the end of the day I found this package on my desk from the Pin Fairy:
Look what was inside:
If anyone's looking for some cool handmade stitch markers-you've come to the right blog :-)

Thursday, February 01, 2007

MITTENS ARE THE NEW SOCKS!
There, I said it. I'm not bashing socks any. I was an avid sock knitter myself in 2006. I suppose now that the cold weather has finally arrived we're all realizing those fingerless gloves we loved last spring and fall are not going to cut it anymore. Plus there are all those neat folk mitten patterns using Fair Isle to make it interesting. Other advanced techniques include using a provisional cast on and making each individual finger. Here's some updated pics of my Glittens:

The thumb and pinkie are done!
I used to balk at the price of fancy beaded stitch markers. Then I picked some up at sheep and wool festivals and now I can't go back to the little pink and blue plastic circles. I'll admit sometimes the larger glass ones can weigh your project down and feel a bit awkward. Plus you have to make sure you keep the bead to the front of the work. Otherwise it gets trapped in the knitting and when you try to pull it out it leaves a big hole. After reading an article in a knitting magazine I decided to try to make my own. I looked for the right pliers at AC Moore and online but think I'm going to go to Lowe's this weekend to pick some up. Soon I'll be making ones like these:
In an effort to not drive my roomate crazy with all my knitting paraphenalia scattered about the living room I re-organized and gave them a clever disguise:

I also found that I had so many cords around that looked unsightly between the chargers for my Treo and Ipod and the card reader for my camera. I now keep them partially hidden in here:


Ok, time to work on the the other fingers on these Glittens so I can wear them before Spring!