4 posts tagged “knitting”
So, I managed to knit the heel and turn it - semi correctly. The instructions confused me once I got to the heel, 'cause they weren't very clear about how many needles to use and on which to put the stitches. I had thought I'd figured it out, but I managed to miss a stitch at the end... don't know how it happened.
Upon re-reading the instructions, I also figured out that I did the ribbing wrong. I need to learn to read... but that's not a big deal. I just did a variation on the ribbing, really. You couldn't tell that was wrong unless you read the pattern.
However, I was very unsure that I was knitting the heel right, and it looked very long - too long. So, I tried it on, remembering that I had read on Cookie's blog somewhere that she knew how to bend a metal needle... putting it on a foot model with a very high instep. Did that stop me? No. It only snapped when I was trying to get it off. But, luckily, it didn't break exactly in half, and one of the halves was big enough to continue knitting after a fashion.
This is why it's good to have a lot of needles - then I could just substitute one. However, this is my only pair of small DPNs, so I will have had to go to the store and buy a new pair. But that's not necessarily a bad thing either, since I need to get a smaller crochet hook anyway. Watching an action movie and knitting at the same time will result in dropped stitches. Too many. The smallest hook I have disappeared down the couch, so I had to use an I hook, or 5.5mm - too big for sock sized stitches.
I would really love to be able to splurge on some sort of needle set, but I'm sure those are way out of my price range - but it would be really nice for situations like this. And also for when I want to start a project that I find a pattern for on Ravelry, and I have the yarn, but I don't have the needles. Very frustrating.
One advantage to never being able to sleep normal hours (despite best efforts) is that it leaves you with ample time to knit more. (When the lover isn't home - he doesn't take to well to the very bright overhead light being turned on while he's sleeping.) I am semi-trying to get these socks done for mom before she leaves on her trip. And I say semi-trying, because I think, "It would be nice if I did!" but I know inside that it probably won't happen, since I think she leaves in a little over a week. I'll probably have one sock done by then, since I'll have to take time to look up how to do the heel and graft the toe. (Graft a toe?!) But I do have 5 of the 6 repeats done as of this writing! The heel is near!
It's also too bad that I wasn't browsing sock patterns/yarns more, because I've found a yarn called Denali from Pagewood Farms that would of course be fitting since it's Denali and I think that the Misty colorway would be a nice... Denali-ish color. Maybe they could be a remembrance sock for the after-trip. I wonder if I could send these to her mid-trip?
But, again, I'm getting ahead of myself - I'm planning all these wonderful sock projects, when I haven't even finished one sock, let alone a pair. I'm worried that I'll have such a hard time with some aspect of the sock that I'll hate it and that entire section of knitting will be forever gone for me.
I feel the same way about the sweater, but I'll post about that when the yarn is here.
It's so hard not to buy yarn that I "could use, someday, for some project - it's so pretty!"
I made the mistake of subscribing to PurlSoho's newsletter, with goings-on, sales, new products, etc. Every so often they send me e-mails full of beautiful new yarn that I would just love to have... but, it costs money that I don't have in my yarn budget. Even if it could be knitted into something soft and useful for me/Mom/Dad/Luis/Grandma/anyone.
They had some beautiful new yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas, Skinny Cotton, and let me tell you, I was this close to buying a few skeins of it. Who could resist that color? They would have made beautiful fetchings for me, or a little sweater, or... the possibilities are endless.
I half wonder if sometimes I don't want a yarn just to have it in my stash - to look at once in a while and admire the beauty of it, the softness. Yes, I could think of all the things I could make out of it, but it's also nice just to have and look at. Kind of like that yarn from Tilli Tomas that I talked about in the last post. As the Yarn Harlot puts it, I want it for my "core stash" - to be looked at, but never touched.
I also have some yarn that I'd been saving for myself (for what, I don't exactly know, but again - it was one of those buys where it was so pretty I had to have it) that I think will be knit into a nice, light scarf for my Grandma. She had gifted me the money to buy an iPhone for Christmas after everyone pretty much bullied me out of buying it with my birthday money. (Long story - anyone remember reading that?) and even though I sent the prettiest thank you note, I don't feel like it was enough. I love this damn phone. So, what better than a nice soft scarf out of Artyarns Silk Rhapsody colorway 105, or a color I like to call Rose Garden?
Now that I've started the sock, and that it's going well, I've been going nuts lining up projects for myself. And I do feel like I'm getting ahead of myself. I had talked to my dad, and he wants me to knit my grandma in Mexico a cardigan and a scarf. To which I said, "What?!" because why would anyone in Mexico (especially where my grandma lives) want something wooly to wear? I would die if I wore a cardigan and a scarf down there. But apparently, she does get cold sometimes, and he thinks she would like them. Sure! I'll knit them. (Do I know how to knit a sweater? Not yet. But hey, hopefully it turns out ok.) Dad also says he'd like a scarf, which I think is a little... B.S. The man doesn't wear a hat in the winter, why would he wear a scarf? "I don't wear a scarf because I don't have one to wear!" Sure. I'll throw one together. In green, white and red stripes? I'll try. (I really think I'll cop out of that though - finding appropriately colored yarn to match the Mexican flag isn't easy.) I bullied Luis into choosing colorways he liked for a pair of socks and a hat (probably neither of which will be worn, but as I told him, "It's the thought that counts, so choose a damn color.")
I haven't yet knitted anything for myself yet - in large part because the things that I want for myself require more skill than I think I have at the moment, or I don't think that the pattern will fit me. So... I'm hanging back a little. Although I do have my eyes on Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Oregon Red Clover Honey, possibly to be knitted into some Pembrokeshire socks for me.
It's just too bad I don't have anyone to talk to about all this knitting stuff - not just someone that could help me when I have questions or problems, but someone who wants to hear about it and actually has an interest. There have been times when I've been proud enough of what I was doing that I wanted to share my triumph ("The cables worked!" - "This looks like it's supposed to!" - "I'm knitting a sock that looks like a sock!") or just acknowledge my progress. My first impulse is to show my mom, but I can't, since she's in Colorado. She would be the first person to care - she's crafty, she can appreciate the work I'm doing. The other "motherly figure" (and I use that term loosely as it applies to our relationship) is Tyler's mother, but she could care less, since I've tried other times to show her. I get a cursory look and some lame comment, and I'd rather not share at all than have that. Tyler himself is subjected to my sharing of yarn and wool, and he does look (sometimes - if the game is up, I might not get him to look) but he'll always listen and be encouraging and care. I need a knitting buddy so he doesn't bombarded by all this.
But enough knitterly chatter - I would like to take a moment to mention that right now (and since about 4 AM) it's been raining like Noah should have built his ark already. It's a good thing this house is raised, we're going to need the distance between the house and the lake that's forming outside.
The only WoW-news of note is that I am now the proud owner of a Cobalt War Talbuk. The grind wasn't as horrible as my rep grind for my kitty mount, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it might be. Either way, I got Tyler to help out with some AOE grinding and I got them before his hastily-scheduled heroic Shattered Halls run.
That was certainly an adventure - and a humbling one at that. I had just earlier that night been admiring how much mana I've managed to acquire, and then we step in that instance and all that just flew out the window. Tyler had wanted to start getting badges to get some gear, and I guess coincidentally Shattered Halls had some good boots that could drop, so he chose that as a heroic, not knowing that it's one of the hardest heroics in the game. We didn't know this until our guild leader came to help and said, "You've never run this on heroic? You're in for a treat..." Tyler had run it on normal the day before, and I hadn't ever run Shattered Halls. What a way to learn. Tyler died a lot, which I felt pretty bad about, but he was a little undergeared for the instance, and they hit pretty hard, so I was healing and healing with hardly any time for regen - and thank gawd I had made all those mana potions last week. I had never had to drink so many potions in one instance. Ever. But we made pretty good time, I guess, since one guy got to turn in whatever quest you get from the gnome. (Which we were told not to bother taking, since we wouldn't make it before the timer ran out. And if we had taken it, we could have completed it. Irony - no fun.)
Zul'Gurub is scheduled for tonight, and I'm pretty excited - I never got to run this in vanilla WoW, even though I heard so much about it from other people before the Burning Crusade came out. It will also be my first real run with the guild as a whole, so that will be a little nerve wracking, but it should be fun.
After probably knitting in the wrong gauge (or just casting on too tightly) I've abandoned the Butterfly Hat, which made me very sad. I'm in love with the yarn - Pure & Simple from Tilli Tomas in Deco Coral - which ended up being much more of a hot pink color than in the picture, unfortunately - but I still loved it, 'cause it was luxurious (100% silk) and not a color that I would usually get, so it was special. I decided it would look pretty with the pattern, and was going to knit it for my Mom (since I decided that if she could wear a pink furry hat [whether as a joke or not, I don't know] she could wear this hat in a bright pink)
At any rate, that has been abandoned, and the yarn saved for something else, and I decided to take up my sock again. I had decided to go through my rite of passage and start my first pair of socks - in a colorway that I'm not too particularly keen on, but they're being knitted for Mom, and these are more her colors. I chose to knit the Monkey Sock pattern (since it's so popular, I guess it must be good) in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock (Mediumweight) in Lunasea. And I was dragging, since I had a boring twisted rib for an inch... and it really just went so slowly, and when I decided to check, I was a little past an inch, so I got to start the lace pattern. So much better! Much more interesting and fun to knit. I'm a little worried about doing the heel and grafting the toe... but hopefully I'll be competent enough to figure everything out alright.
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