Sunday, January 30, 2011

Crosswalkers!


Hello. I finished a project. Yeah. Hurrah. Yipee yipee yippee!

Pattern: Crosswalkers (free Ravelry pattern)
Yarn: Red Heart (I know, I know) Heart and Sole in Razzle Dazzle
Needles: Size 2 Knit Picks. I knit these two at a time.

I loved how quickly this pattern knit up. It is a great pattern for busy yarn. The miter just looks neat in a really busy pattern. Would I change anything? You bet. The pattern starts out with the make 1 on the edges and the decreases on the middle stitches but at the heel shaping this all changes. When knitting these as I did, two at a time magic loop, I had to take everything off the needles. It was a chore. I would start the sock the same way it ends to make this easier to accomplish. I would also do the leg on at least a half size needle larger than the foot. The mitered pattern has less stretch in the leg but since the foot is only half miter there is more stretch. I used 72 stitches instead of 80. I could understand the 80 stitches if using a smaller needle.



The foot on mine is a bit baggy. I didn't go down a needle size like I should have. I think a good wash will make these fit perfect.



The yarn. Surprisingly for Red Heart, which I generally loathe, I love it. The fiber content is all natural except for the nylon which is a necessity in socks. It washed up so soft. Try it. You will be surprised.



I am also making progress on my Medium Weight Pullover. I have separated the arms and am working on the boring stockinette body!



This weekend I pulled out my sock yarn blanket and decided to get in some blocks. This blanket will be 16 x 32 when done. Do the math. That is 512 squares. I have about 30 currently. I have a lot of work to do!



Well I am off until next time. Maybe I will have a finished sweater to share when we next visit! Happy knitting!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Busy but good!

Today has been a busy day! Busy but good I sometimes say! Every other Saturday morning something magical happens. The house cleaning fairies come to my house and erase two weeks of use and abuse to my bathrooms, kitchen, floors and furniture. The beds are made up with clean sheets and when we walk in from being gone the smell in the air is NOT dirty boy, but rather clean, crisp and bleachy (one of my favorite four words)! While they are in the house doing their magic we disappear, leaving them to it!
Today started busy. Even though I have a housekeeping team, I spend the better part of my Saturday morning BEFORE 10am cleaning... Ironic. I know. I have to strip the beds, clean up the clutter and load the dishwasher as I want them to clean the stuff, under, the clutter. 6:30 came and I was up. We then cleaned up and headed out to run errands. We take this time to do returns, pick up household items and get that nagging to do stuff done. One the list today, return iTrip to Best Buy, use up four gift cards at Borders...


returns and exchanges at Nordstoms, pick up cards that were left on my desk at work, zip into the yarn store for wool wash to give with baby shower gift (ummm, there was a line at the register, I couldn't resist)...





pick up medicine for the dreaded cold sore on Elliot's lip, rush home to pick up extra car and off to a baby shower I went. Clint went the opposite direction to take Elliot to his first trumpet lesson.
Baby Shower...


Pattern: Chloe by Never Not Knitting
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton in three colors
Sizes: One and Six

I made these sweaters for my friends Shannon and Troys new baby and daughter Laken. Laken's favorite colors are purple, pink and green. They will have a matching sweater moment, I am so glad that she liked them. I hope to share a picture of them wearing them eventually. Baby is marinating for a couple more weeks.



I hope you have all had a busy but GOOD day too!

Monday, January 3, 2011

There's a hole in my sweater, dear Liza, dear Liza ...


Now I pride myself on being a pretty competent knitter. I am no exert, I will not claim that but I have learned how to knit many items and I have spent a fair share of time tinking back, dropping back stitches, fixing knits to purls and purls to knits BUT one thing I have always struggled with is seaming. Armholes, sides, pockets, you name it, if the pattern calls for seaming I am pretty much out! So here I go. I pick a sweater pattern with NO seaming. I am cooking right along. I had a break in my yarn. I joined that bad boy up and for some reason had the most terrible yarn join imaginable. I stitched it up as best I could but it looked messy. So here is where things go terribly wrong... I decided to take my join out. Problem here is I kept taking it out. To much out. I ended up unknitting several stitches. Uh oh. How do you fix that little mistake. Well after saying a few choice words I captured my stitches and decided I would call on one of my expert knitting buddies at Friday night knitting, that would be the quickest most reasonable answer to my dilemma. Well that worked for about 5 minutes until I started researching grafting in this manner. I tried Kitchener stitch which was fine except for the beginning. I tried my own rubbish method I mean really how hard can getting those 6 stitches to mesh could it be. Egads. I wanted to cry! I happened upon an article finally with this picture


and after several attempts I think my boo boo is pretty invisible. What do you think!






I think I will be able to say, this sweater has been a learning experience...

Saturday, January 1, 2011