All Buttoned Up

I’m so jealous. I keep seeing all these gorgeous knitted blankets - and I want to be done with mine! I want mine to look like all of these blankets at the same time. Really, I just want someone to give me these blankets.

When I started (back in early June), it didn’t take long before I had these a few rounds. This photo, right is the progress as of June 11.

Then I started getting distracted by socks and scarves and underwear.

Then, I started to get really jealous as everyone ELSE was finishing theirs!

Tara showed off hers at the Mason Dixon Knit-a-Long. I gasped when I saw hers. It’s just so beautiful. The colors. The pattern. Oh, I can’t take it! I love the way the apple green plays with the white, the black and the gray. Genious color choices. And she knit it out of acrylic - it’s enough to make me think of knitting one myself in the same yarn!

And Sharon’s colorful blanket is also great. Her four year old daughter is spoiled. My mom never made me anything that nice (well, ok, there was a flannel quilt…).
Monika’s Curve of Pursuit blanket (7.13) is stunning. I’m amazed. It makes me want to go in pursuit of that pattern. (Also, superkudos to her for being the first to knit the not-quite-straight-scarf and send me a photo - see her blog entry about it here.)

And the first I’ve seen in pastel’s (truly a baby blanket) was over at Crankyisgood - it’s a baby moderne and I love it!

Then, I was perusing some blogs and look at this one over at Athena Dreams. Wowza! I love the purple with the greeny brown.

Jessica recently posted hers on the MDK KAL - It’s a ton of mitered squares. And it’s absolutely incredible. I love the colors she chose. There’s so many of them - but they all look so good together!

During all this drooling, I made little progress on my blanket. It’s roughly 26″ by 26″ in the above photo.  My goal is to have 12 rounds and then a border - which is obviously very far from where I am in this picture.

Anyway, I was so inspired by all the finished blankets that I was seeing that I decided that I would knit 4 full rounds from where I am in this photo - so I’d be inspired to make progress and then be inspired by that progress to finish. Alas - I am not where I wanted to be. I just want to be done! I want to be able to curl up with this thing with no cold air leaking because it’s too small!

My Misty Garden Scarf is coming along splendidly on the other hand. It’s my non-boring knitting. It’s about 3 feet long now. It’s just a really fun knit. It’s only 4 rows to the repeat - so as soon as it starts to get boring - there’s an exciting row ahead of you. I want to finish this scarf so that I can finally start backyard leaves. I got the yarn in the mail on Friday and it’s calling out to me. “Nicole - I’m merino - come knit me. I’ll be really soft. I’m your favorite color. You know you want to.” I resist but wonder if the resistance is futuile.

I was also distracted one night by my spindle that I couldn’t do anything until I spun me some yarn. It was tricky, but I finally did it. LOOK!

Oh - don’t forget to enter the contest described in the entry below - I’ll be drawing a winner on Friday!

In which I show you little bits of my favorites - or, tiny pieces of writing about knitting and ME!.

So… what have I been up to you ask? I gave you your free pattern! What more do you want from me? A new post? Well, ok.

First, thank you all soooooo much for your feedback about my free pattern. I’m thrilled with everyone’s encouragement and truly glad that ya’ll like it (that includes the folks on craftster, the knittyboard and those who’ve commented). I mean it when I say send me photos of your versions - I’d love to see what your renditions look like!

I bought a copy of Real Simple magazine yesterday (remind me to write a post that I’m really 21 regardless of some things I do that seem to age me older) and there were some really cute things in there! Upside down champagne glasses as candleholders! Yummy recipes for salsa!

In particular there was a certain something that is just screaming to be written as a knitting pattern. I’m not sure yet how much of it I’ll show you as I make it - I may want to submit it to a magazine. But anyway, the magazine was filled with cute stuff - in particular this on the left.
It’s a swatch of inspiration! I love it! I’m going to put it in my planner for pick-me-ups throughout the day.

I’ve also made some actual knitting swatches for some stuff. the ugly orange pieces - those need another toss in the washing machine to felt. The purple one was just a fun experiment to try out a new stitch pattern - but I love the way it looks so much that I may just have to design something wtih that stitch pattern on at least part of it.It’s my new favorite stitch pattern. I’m thinking that I may use that pattern for the top half of a sweater. I think it is an interesting texture that can really spice up a boring knit.

Oh! And I got some new buttons the other day. Some really really cute new buttons. Some of them are just screaming to be on a designed-by-nicole sweater! Here are some of the new buttons in my favorite color: Green!

The next little swatches are some more of my favorites. First up are Cheddar Asiago cheese square sourdough buiscuit things from Archer Farms . I love these things. Today, they are my breakfast.

With something else… there’s a clue at the end of this post (in swatch form of course). Answer in the comments and I’ll randomly draw a number - the winner will get a really fun surprise - which will at the least include some stitch markers, needles, yarn and a coupon for free panties - holy cow, that’s a lot!

It’s pretty obvous to me but I’m rather biased - seeing as there is evidence of my addiction to this stuff ALL OVER MY ROOM. I wonder if I’m giving too many clues here. Hmmm. Best of luck!

Hmm. What could it be? It’s my favorite color… but it’s not a lizard. Ok, I should stop now before I give away the farm.

ETA - Contest now CLOSED - Amanda won (random number generated was hers!)  She was also correct in her answer - it is Diet Coke with lime - My only true love.  Lol, jk, I love lots of other things (and people).

My first free pattern! Indeed! I did it!

Finally!

The specifics:
Pattern: The Not-Quite-Straight Scarf
Needles: US 9 (I used my Brittany Birch ones, always a treat with scarves)
Yarn: Andean Silk from Knitpicks

Description: This scarf is knit on a bias so that the ridges of reverse stockinette create diagonal lines. It is incredibly beginner friendly and unlike many bias-knit scarves, it features squared ends instead of points.

The pattern is simple to memorize and simpler to execute.

I designed it because I wanted to make a scarf for my brother for Christmas. I wanted something less boring that garter stitch or ribbing but still something that could be masculine. His version is in black. You can see more photos of both the red and black versions on my flickr site (see the sidebar to the right).

In additional to being available on my Free Patterns Page -
Heres the link to the PDF: Not-Quite-Straight-Scarf

I’ll only have it there until the new Google platypus Gdrive finally happens (google it - it’s going to be amazing)- then I’m going to host it over there.

In the meantime, send me links of your finished scarves - I’ll love to make a gallery of them sometime… I hope you enjoy the pattern - let me know if you have problems (this is the first time I’ve written a pattern, be easy on me).

(Oh - and the people modelling the scarves on this post are not me. They are my friends Leah and Kyle).

Oh - and an update on the sock curse - for now, my boyfriend and I are giving it another try. But there’s no way I’m knitting the other sock anytime soon. Thanks for all your encouragement by the way. You all are great!

As I discussed in my last book review about Scarf Style, I don’t give scarves enough credit.

I’ve dismissed them as to amateurish - not to mention the fact that they are so LONG!

But now, I newly love scarves.   I’ve designed one (trying to find a document hosting service that’s free, I’ll post the pattern soon, I promise) and knit two versions of it - and I LOVE the results.

When I bought Scarf Style, I really wanted to knit lots of the scarves in it - and lately, the one that’s been appealing to me is Misty Garden by Jo Sharp.

Now, it’s knit in mohiar - and the last time I knit father and fan in mohair, there were disastrous results.  True to form, frogging was absolutely impossible.  And since I was still learning the whole feather and fan thing, I made lotsa mistakes.  It was bad.  I was able to save most of the yarn (I did the freezer trick), but I’ve been leery to touch the mohair again.

The past few days, I’ve been itching to start a scarf - but I didn’t think I had any yarn.  But then, in part thanks to Brenda Dayne’s newest Cast-On podcast, I remembered the Briar Rose Fibers yarn that I’d picked up at the Putnam County Fleece Fair.

It was perfect - except for one thing - it’s really thin.  So I’m using size 3 needles.  I’m knitting a scarf on size 3 needles.  US 3.  Talk about jumping right in to scarves huh?

It’s slow going, but I like it!

Yay for believing in scarves again!

(Also - I’m having a tough time and it may be a few days before I update again.  Lets just say that I now believe that the curse applies to socks - and damn it, I tempted fate.) 

So, I was flipping through a copy of Cosmo because aparently they had Victoria’s Secret coupons for free panties (I prefer the term underwear, mind you) and after finding the coupon it took me a good 5 minutes to realize this:

She’s carrying knitting! And she’s half naked! And she’s not 85 years old!
And I’ve been telling people for so long that knitting is sexy. Finally! Proof!

Now if only knitting could give me a behind like that. *sigh*  In the meantime, I’m going to go hang this on my door.

Monica left me a comment on my post about my Pinwheel Blanket. She writes “Beautiful blanket. I made one myself. I hated the YO, I messed them up, forgot about them and so on. I love your colores and it is nicely done!”

She brings up a good point. It can be hard to keep track of YOs sometimes. However, I thought I’d write up a little somethin’ somethin’ about my YO philosophy (because really, everyone needs a YO philosophy).

First - When knitting the Pinwheel Blanket I’d suggest using stitch markers before each YO. In places where it’s 100 million stitches(or more) in between each increase, stockinette stitch can become automatic - stitch markers are good to remind your fingers that you need to pay attention.

Next up: What does a YO (Yarn over - also sometimes called yrn, yarn round the needle, yf, yarn forward, etc - there are some minor differences in what each of these mean, but it’s really kind of the same thing - but that’s another how to, another day) look like? In the pinweel blanket, you knit one round plain and in the next round you YO when you get to your stich markers. What’s an easy way to keep track of which round you’re on? Simple. Read your stitches. If they next stitch on your needle looks like the one in the photo to the right, you will knit the yarn over you made in the previous round- so you’re on a plain knit row.

But how can you tell it’s a yarn over? Well, basically there are no stitches below it. That means that if you drop this stich off the needle, you will not get a run all the way down your work (a YO is just an increase that leaves a hole) like you would for normally dropped stitches. You can drop this stitch if you like (to make sure it’s not a YO) - it’ll be real easy to pick back up again.

So, you would knit that YO and continue around the blanket, knitting every stitch of that round.

But what if one stitch marker falls off and I miss a YO you ask? Simple. Force one. First, how to recognize such an occasion. You’ll know this happened when you are knitting around, knitting your YOs and suddenly one is missing. It’ll look something like this:

A pretty easy fix. First, you have to understand that in between those two needles, the top bar of yarn is simply the yarn that runs between two stitches on the row below (where you should have made a YO). It is the same as this:

What you used to think was a dropped stitch when you were learning to knit.

So, in order to rescue your work (and not, as near the end stages of the blanket, unknit 1,000,000,000 stitches) all you have to do is force the yarn over. And to do that is really very simple.

Just insert the left needle into the bar and knit it like you would a yarn over.

It may look a bit funky to you but it’s really not worth worrying about. Any unevenness can be worked out when you block the piece (because you block everything right?). Really, you can probably do this and barely be able to tell that you even had a mistake to fix.
Ok, good. So you’ve got that.

But what if you totally flaked and you don’t notice until your mistake (a forgotten YO) is 2 rounds back?

No problem.

First. Your stitches will look like this. Instead of having the single bar, you’ll have two of them. Use the needle in your right hand to pick up the bottom bar (let the top bar lie behind the stitch you’re picking up)- in my photo this bar is being pointed to by a bright green arrow.

Now your knitting will look like this (minus the green arrow of course):

For the next step, you’ll use the left needle to pull the other bar forward between the loop now on your right needle.

See photo below for illustrative help. (Visual illustrations are best sometimes)

Drop the loop of the right needle. now your knitting looks like this:

Whew. That’s what it should look like. Now, your next step would be to yo and continue knitting until your next stich marker where you’ll YO again etc. all through the round. Any uneveness can be worked out in the blocking.

If you forget and don’t realize until 3 or more rounds later you can use the same general ideas to force yarn overs and fix your mistakes. It’s probably not such a good idea because at a certain point, even blocking may not fix the uneven-ness.
Monika - I hope this helps you - and anyone else who is thinking about knitting the Pinwheel Baby Blanket.

And remember (this my advice to all knitters with questions) - WWIII will not begin because you drop a stitch, forget a YO or generally screw up your knitting. I promise. Trial and error is the best way to learn how knitting is really constructed. Use your mistakes as an opportunity to play and see how you can fix it.  Be creative and try different ideas until one works and looks right.  Your own knitting skill will grow so fast as you do this.

In the meantime, let me know if this was hellpful - what could have been better (for future how-tos)?  what was missing?  Was the text easy to understand?

The problem continues. Still, my socks are mateless. And yet I itch to start a new one (the fair isle knitpicks one) - this is not looking good. Today, we hear Marla’s Story.

Marla: (as she swigs a drink of her Mojito) Why? Why? I have so much going for me. Why must I sit here, alone, waiting?

Nicole: How long have you been waiting?

M: Forever. My whole life. And still I wait.

N: Aren’t you a bit young? You are the youngest here. I mean some of these other socks have been waiting for months. You’ve barely been finished a few weeks.

M: I know. But there’s not even a glimmer of hope for me. I was a quick, boredom-cutting sock (knit in a week, no less) and I just know I’ll be single for a long time.

N: What makes you think that you won’t stay single forever?

M: I’m knit with Merino Wool. Knitpicks Handpainted Memories actually (Colorway: Redwood Forest). I’m one of only 2 socks that has been knit with Merino so far. But the other “Grandma” sock has already been started - thus, I’m the less popular of the Merinos. Always second best Marla is. Never the best.

N: Maybe you ought to stop drinking (as Marla leans over and sips her drink from the straw) - knitting and drinking never mixes well.

M: Can’t a girl be lonely and drunk anymore…. jeeesh. I mean look at my lines. I’m sexy. Who wouldn’t want that? Honestly.

N: You’re very sexy. I’m sure you’ll meet someone someday. Your time will come. Don’t worry.

See More from this series:
Erica’s Tale
Katie’s Bitter Diatribe
Sarah’s Egotistical Optimism
Vita’s Norwegian Skepticism

You can also see what happens to Marla here.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!  Be careful with those fireworks (I’ll be letting the professionals do it for me!)

Some people spend their entire lives in search of “the perfect needles” for them. They curse the weight of some and write love sonnets about the temperatures of others. Whole doctoral thesis (I took latin and I still cannot tell you what the plural of this would should be) are written about points. Points!!

I am not one of those people. In my quest for stuff, I justify having vases and rolls full of needles of every size and type. I think I prefer bamboo as a general rule, but that doesn’t stop me from owning 3 pairs of birch needles and oodles and oodles of metal straights. I can appreciate something from each type of needle.

Today, I’ll discuss the new Knitpicks Options needles. Now, let me preface something here. I didn’t get the changable set which is obviously the point of the entire line. I bought a set of double points (US 2) in my favorite sock size. I felt that getting double points would be a good way for me to test the line without a commitment (or waiting for weeks for the back-orders to catch up) - any I love my size 2s - even if they weren’t my favorite, they were likely to get used.

Above, you’ll see a photo comparing 4 of the size 2s from my collection. On the right, a point from an Addi 16″ circular. Next, (in green) a standard Boye (or Susan Bates or whatever cheap, hobby store brand you prefer, they’re all alike), followed by my perennial favorite, a Clover bamboo double point and then, a new, Knitpicks needle. That photo is for those who are a bit anal about their tips.

The photo to the right here, is to compare the Addis and the new Knitpicks version. Obviously Knitpicks meant to take the strong points of Addis and improve upon them (while keeping the prices nice and low). I love the slick texture of the addis, but I too hate the tips. They’re working ok on the garter stitch log cabin blanket I’m working on - but I’d really prefer more point definition. This is where the new KP needles come it. Look at that amazing tip ya’ll!

And they’re as slick as ever. Which brings me to the next question. How do these suckers knit.

First, I should explain that I generally only knit socks with my Clovers. Now, I never noticed that the Clovers had virtually the same tips as the Addis. Pretty blunt and rounded.

However, in my opinion, the slick texture of the addis, combined with the dull tips are just bad news. It’s harder to do textured stitches (twists through the back loops, cables or the like) - and the stitches just want to take quick jumps off the needles (which is, of course, bad). The texture of the Clovers means that the stitches slide with more resistance - thus no suicidal leaps (for me or the stitches).

However, I’ve always admired the smoothness of the addis and I’ve wanted their speed but have been unwilling to compromise control. Enter Knitpicks Options.

Wow. These are nice. Really nice. I can’t promise that I’ll leave my clovers in the dust for these (I do have 3 sets in US 2), but I can say that any sock which may require some texture and precision - will definetly be knit on these. Like when I finally decide to knit pomatomus. (FYI- these come in sets of 5 needles - I’m just using 4 of them b/c my pattern is easiest divisible by 3)

In the meantime, I’m going to try to finish some of these socks that are mateless. Poor things cry out at night from lonelyness. I can barely sleep. Why’s this purple sock still on my lap then? Huh. (Don’t tell the others, please)

Oh. and by the way. This will be the last you see of these socks untill they debut as a free pattern. It’ll also be my first sock pattern I’ve written myself that I think has some unique-ness to it. You should be excited.