I’ll be leaving soon…

Once I stop breaking things!

I’m trying to build a wordpress.org site, and move on to bigger and better things… but shoot if all this php, css, htp, cyberduck, etc stuff isn’t really, really confusing!

Anyway. That’s what I’ve been up to – and what you can expect to see sometime soon-ish. Once my life calms down. It’s August, which means that I have no life for a bit while I’m training and while my staffers are in training.

Oh wait. This is a knitting blog. Hmm. Here go:

I have been watching the Rainey Sisters start knitting this and in a really wise snap decision, I rushed out and got enough yarn to start my own.  I’ve knit even more than what you see there – I’m only 5 inches from the point where I get to do an armhole (how did I find the time to get that far, you ask?  I have no idea.) and I love this knit.  The errata makes things a bit confusing, but I’m liking it.

So yay.  Knitting:  Success.  Blogging:  Failure.  Life:  Busy.

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Secrets and Obsessions

I finished a blanket!! And, by my deadline! (check out Rav for the details.)

I’d been wanting to make Babette (which is crocheted! ::gasp::) because it’s just so freaking pretty – and it reminded me of the blankets that my grandma used to have – but with a nice new modern feel. But I knew that if I made the blanket for myself, it would take years. Probably even longer than my log cabin did.

So I pitched the idea to my mom (the one with the mad crochet skillz) that we BOTH work on it and present it to my sister as a graduation present. She liked the idea and one awesome yarn-shopping-trip later, we were all set to go. I did crochet some of the squares, though my mom did more than her share. I had the awesome job of seaming, weaving in the ends and making the border. The fun stuff right?

It was worth it. My sister likes it, and as a friend said: It’ll be perfect for those movie nights.

Next up:

I started a new, mindless sock.  I lurve it.  The yarn came from a sock blank swap that we had over on Ravelry and the package totally made my day.

I know that I promised that I was going to design a sock and show you the whole project along the way… but there are a few things stopping me right now, only one of which is that I haven’t yet come up with a stitch pattern that I want to use.  The other thing?

I have an addiction.  An obsession really.

I’ve become a twilight fan.

Luckily, I only started the series 2 weeks ago so I haven’t had to wait that long for the final book to come out (tonight.  Midnight.  Eeek!) – but I’ve re-read all the three books and I can’t stop thinking about it.  I joined a Ravelry group and it’s more than 3/4 of my posts (out of the last 30 days) on Ravelry now.  At knitting night last night, I was yelled at more than once for checking out some of the latest posts on the topic.

As you can imagine, reading about 2,000 pages twice (and daydreaming about irresistible vampires) has seriously cut into the knitting time.

Anyway.  I was ashamed and hiding my addiction, but now I just don’t care – I fully acknowledge that I have an addiction.  Kalani reminded me that this is the first step.  This should all be over in a few days and then I’ll hopefully be back to my knitting self.

And Mom?  You still cannot read these books.  Edward is mine and I don’t want him in your head.  I’m just not comfortable with that. Really, I’m just trying to protect you from this terrible addiction.  Yea.  That’s it.  I’m just looking out for your best interest.

Popsicle! Limesicle!

I’m pleased to be able to announce one of my secret projects!

Yay!

Here we have Popsicle (Rav link), a new sock pattern that features a mirrored patterning across the foot. I designed this for Three Irish Girls yarn company and their Sock Yarnista sock club.

I’m incredibly proud of this design and the way it turned out. It’s pretty easy/simple… and the swooshing off the foot makes me hope that people will be able to avoid some second sock syndrome. Just doing my duty, you know…

One of the design challenges in this sock was that I had to figure out how to do the gusset decreases (since the instep had it’s own party going on, I didn’t want to crowd it with your typical gusset decreases).  I knew that as Cat Bordhi explains, I could place the decreases where ever I wanted in the gusset section, just so long as they existed…  I tried a few options and finally found a perfect solution… along the bottom of the heel.  You can see a photo here that illustrates this.

Um, so yay!  I love this pattern and I hope you do too!

Here are some specifics:

Popsicle, Designed by Nicole Hindes
Gauge: 30 sts over 4 inches (36 rows over 4 inches)
Yarn:  Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merin
Needles: US 2 (But use what gets YOU gauge)
Download available: at the Three Irish Girls Website ($5.95)
The inspiration:  This sock is an homage to the summers of my childhood. It’s a fairly simple, top-down sock with a heel flap. The interesting element to keep you out of the heat is the way the pattern melts off the top of your foot like a popsicle during the dog days of summer.

My Holiday

What a great weekend! We’re a great, crazy bunch. Here’s how the weekend went:

I at some raspberries. Fresh from my mom’s bushes.

We played some cards and ate some yummy food.

We hung around and waited for the fireworks to start (there were 30 of us watching the fireworks).

They were bright.

And a little crazy.

And beautiful.

All these photos taken by me. On my honor. With help from this tutorial.

There were babies.

Adorable, very photogenic babies.

Such cute babies.

There was some intense cardboard boat building.

Some intense boat racing.

A huge crowd to cheer on the boaters.

We don’t actually know who the people in the real boats are. Apparently they thought racing cardboard boats was an oddity worth watching.

There were some prizes. My team won the titanic award. We literally went down in flames.

There was the charity auction. My sleep mask brought in $55. The bottle of Oliver wine that I donated at the last minute brought in $70! The total donation from the auction? $5,600!!!!

And because we’re not fun enough… we had a pinata too!

Whew. I’m exhausted. Click over to the flickr set for more photos.

My Favorite

If you’ll remember, today is my favorite holiday ever. Hopefully in a few days, I’ll give you some photographic proof of this holiday’s awesomeness in the way that my family celebrates it… but I have to remember to take photos. In the meantime, this holiday involves:

• a smattering of my 50 aunts and uncles (on one side)
• A selection of my 59 cousins (on one side) and 12 second cousins (I think that’s the term I want. Second and third always confuse me).
• Tons of food. Including beef from the cows my parents raise (with no chemicals or gross stuff)
• Raspberries. From my mom’s bushes. That means they’re free and all-I-can-pick.
• A boat regatta. Of the cardboard variety. Yup. We really do that.
• Swimming, boating and general frolicking in the best lake ever.

Oh! I almost forgot! I have a contest winner to announce!

Comment number 32 was….

Blogless Angela Noel! She’s been sent an email!

In other news… please everyone be safe with the big fire-exploding-making. Fireworks are not toys. They are fire. Just thought it was worth a review. Um. Yay!

Quickies! The Best part of life!

NOooo! This is a knitting blog. Silly.

I’ve started on the dishcloths. A few people suggested the colors that I ended up using – but ultimately, it was my mom who called (after reading that blog post – check it out, there’s a contest goin’ on) and told me that the bride’s maid (what a funny word linguistically… why did I never notice that before?) dresses were going to be brown with little pink accents. I like the combination, but there’s a fine line before one gets into neopolitan ice cream territory (which I’d like to avoid). And so I made the following dishcloths:

They’re not my favorite, but I suspect that’s because I’m not a huge fan of the color combos. Oh well. They’ll do.

I’ve also made another Velvet Oblivion. I make tons of these. So much so that I have a system for naming them. This one, for example is VO version 6.08 (month, year). They’re like my stand-by gift because they’re awesome, decently affordable (I can get 3 out of the ball of Touch Me) and SUPER quick since I’ve long since stopped knitting the furry border – a single round of double crochet just goes soooo fast. These are also like the ONE thing, IMO, that I’ve found as “acceptable use” of eyelash yarn.

It’s difficult to take a photo of yourself with a blindfold on. Here’s a few outakes.

I’ve made this version for a family auction that will occur over the holiday weekend. Benefits go to a great cause (you’ll learn about this later) and I’m sure that my auction item will bring in lots of dollars!

Yay!

And I’ve also made something for me!

($20 bucks says my mom leaves a comment asking for one/a collection)

I didn’t use a pattern for this. I was inspired by Annie’s (Ravelry), but after about 4 different attempts at knitting my own in the past few months, I had to give up on the knitted wire idea. Until… I went to a bead store and got some 28 Gauge silver wire. Tried again. Failed.

So then… I tried some crochet! Yay! It worked! Should I write up a “recipe” for this so you can make your own? Keep in mind that I don’t really know much about crochet… or writing crochet patterns (hence, the “recipe” idea).

In other news. It looks like texture wins for the upcoming sock design – for those of you who wanted lace or colorwork, keep in mind that this tutorial/design will definitely be adaptable for your own colorwork/lace – trust me – it’s just that in this case, the finished product will be texture. I’ve got some swatching ideas comin’ up… I’ll post an “intro” post and step one after the holiday.

Le Fin.

I promised you another FO post… and here it is. And by “it” I mean the big blanket of foreverness. Finished.

It took me so, so, so long.

Seriously. I started this blanket almost a two years ago. This blanket and I have been through a lot together. We knit through my last summer as an undergrad, my senior year at IU and the 72 page thesis I wrote (not at the same time, obviously). I knit on this blanket when I broke up with my ex-boyfriend (that was when I introduced the color green, actually), when we got back together, and then, when we broke up again, this time for real. This blanket was near when freaked out about graduate school, the start of two other blankets (but no finish), and the many times this past year when I was frustrated beyond belief. Oh, and let’s not forget the summer of mold-hell. As I knitted the i-cord BO (yes, i-cord BO, about 24 feet of i-cord), I actually almost cried I was so sad to be done with it. If the i-cord didn’t look so gosh dang-nice, I might have taken another year just to finish that one.

I don’t really have a lot of specifics on this one. All the yarn (except the orange) is KP Wool of the Andes. The orange is Arucania Nature Wool. I knit the blanket on size 7 needles (6 for the border). I have no idea how much yarn it took, but I guess about 45 balls (I’ll weigh the thing one of these days). I also don’t remember the exact colors – but it was most, if not all of the blues available that summer and some white.

Here’s another photo:

Whew.

And now, I’m itching to start another blanket.  The only question is – which one?

A finish and a Journey

I finished the Sunrise Circle Jacket. Or at least as finished as it’s going to be in awhile. Right now, It’s only got two buttons/button loops, but in a few months, I’ll change that. I’m in the process of losing weight and I don’t want to add the other buttons until I’m closer to my goal weight/the fit I want. And this isn’t a silly little diet/fad or what not. I’ve actually lost 7 or 8 pounds (imprecise scale) so far… anyway… Yay for this sweater!

Oh, yea, there was supposed to be a great story with this post. Ummm ok. Here goes:

There once was this knitter (me) who knit an awesome sweater in like 8 days (seen above). She seamed this sweater, promptly tried it on and thought it was too small. Specifically, she was concerned about the stretching in the arms. Frustrated, she decided to continue the sweater and then give said sweater to her younger sister for her upcoming birthday. Generous yes, but what can you do?

A few days later, this knitter brought her sweater to her fantastic knitting group. She explained her concerns and the gifting decision, something she was obviously sad to admit to have to do. Finally, she tried on the sweater and became overwhelmed with the overwhelming chorus of – “oh, you should keep it!” “I think it fits just fine” and “I’m sure blocking will help.” Our knitter left this knitting group torn between the trust of this group, and the love of her sister.

A week later, her sister came for a birthday visit. The knitter kindly and nonchalantly (noncommittally might be a better word) asked her sister to try on the partly-hemmed sweater. And to her disgust, the purply color clashed with her sister’s skin tone like no other color known to man.

Rejoice! The sweater remains with the knitter (and blocked to a much better fit).

(You can see the details on the Ravelry page.)  OH.  And I have another FO – but I’m not going to blog it until I get some photos next weekend.

Introducing: BASKE

Hello Friends!

I wanted to introduce to you my latest design. I call it Baske. I was inspired by a gorgeous gold and white coverlet that I saw in a catalog. I kept staring at the pattern, knowing that there was a great knitting garment in it… when finally it came to me! A fleur de lis pattern!

And so… I present Baske… an awesome new mitten pattern that I hope you love as much as I do. Here’s a photo of the back and the tab thumb:

Elizabeth Zimmerman says that May is the perfect month for knitting winter mittens. When you finish them this time of year, they’re all set for you once the weather turns! Clearly she’s a genius because lately, I am all about the mittens!

The details:

Needles: US 3
Pattern: BASKE (By me!)
Yarn: Cascade 220 or similar weight yarn (I hand-dyed my gold)
Sizes: Available in Small, Medium and Large (7.75, 8.75, 10 inches)
Cost: $6.00
Available via:

Ravelry: or without: buy now

Anyway… Thank you all for being patient with the teasing posts. I hope it was worth it! I’ve worked really hard on this pattern and I’m really, really thrilled with the results. Each size has it’s own chart (you do not change size via gauge) and each size has been test knit.

Why I Love My Knitting Group

From left, me, Huan-Hua, Kalani, Leigh, Norma and Elli.

I was a little harsh on my knitting group in a few posts ago… I love them, I really do. My plan was to follow the post with one about my Sunrise Circle Cardigan (unblogged so far) and talk about how great their advice was… But I haven’t yet finished the cardigan and today we went to the Fiber Event (which sounds like geriatric hell) in Greencastle, Indiana, a few counties over from Bloomington. It was fun….

There was some animal fondling…

There was some questioning and learning…

And of course… the haul. (Don’t worry, that’s not all mine. Only the stuff on the bottom in the paper bag). We carpooled and thought we should get a shot of all the yarn. It was a lot. All the drunk kids who saw us photographing this probably thought we were photographing our collection of hard alcohol or something.

Here’s the stuff I got:

The red stuff was WAY too cheap to pass up (1.20 an ounce)… and the blue stuff to the left of it was FREE with purchase. Absurd. The two pretty skeins in the middle are Briar Rose Fibers… I LOVE her stuff. I tried to resist (I even walked away), but resistance was futile. To left, I have a few small skeins of shetland that will become some stripy fair-isle mittens. The wooden piece is another random weird thing I can have in my apartment so people can ask me “what the hell is this??” (it’s a nostepinne for making center pull balls). I bought a small bag of fiber to make some fiber-covered soap and I also bought some new dye (that I can’t normally buy from Knitpicks). Not a bad haul… particularly because I spent less than 80$. Not bad.

Anyway.  I went to this “event” two years ago and it was fun… but not nearly as much fun as it was with these fine women.  It’s nice having a group of friends who aren’t associated with my job or school.