Sunday, December 31, 2006

Interesting 2008 Predictions

Sorry I have been totally busy lately and unable to post. Travel, Christmas, a cold, a new office, a new car...it's been nuts.

But I was watching Meet the Press this morning, and there were some interesting insights into the upcoming elections. You know how these pundits are--always pushing to create news stories prematurely, but I still thought some of you might be interested. Here's the video.

Happy New Year!

Friday, December 29, 2006

Well i was on vacation then lost internet service forever, but the wristwarmers are done. Just haven't gotten around to weaving in the ends or blocking.. Pictures tomorrow, maybe?

Progress...

So despite my best intentions, my blue sweater's not done. In my defense, I neglected it to do another form of "blue" knitting. About 2 years ago I started a knitting group in Philly called "Knitters for Choice". We had a knitting circle and sold stuff at local craft fairs. I don't live in Philly any more but the group's still alive and well and I promised to knit a bunch of mittens and armwarmers for sale at an event. Of course, I totally forgot to take pictures of what I knit, and they all sold at the event. Oh well.

Since then, I've made pretty good progress on the sweater. Body's done, now the sleeves.


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The picture on the right is of my closure experiments so far. I was all excited about using leather anchors as part of the toggle closure but I think it's not quite right, so I think I should maybe just go with the button and a yarn loop. Opinions welcome.

Ok, Ok.....

I 'migrated' over to the newer blogger, and it wasn't painful at all, heh.
The holiday knitting had plenty of blues in it, photos on my blog, warning, there's also the red thing going on.


Still working on my mother's Irish Hiking Scarf.......100% cashmere DK, Rich Violet, from Sarah's Yarns, using US5 needles. It's close to 4 inches wide and at the moment around 35 inches long and will get a bit longer. This is such a beautiful colour in person, and oh so soft.


Wishing you all a Great New Year full of fibre goodness in all shapes and forms, with knitting to your heart's content....and making all kinds of good times.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

What a Relief!

Here I thought I wasn't going to be able to write in to Knit Blue because I can't convert my blogger account! Who knew I had that many posts/comments (I certainly didn't! but I'm not about to go back and count!) I guess it's possible, but I seriously doubt it - I've been blogging since September of 2004, and I certainly know I haven't been good about blogging daily ;)

Ah well, my beaudelaires are making slow slow progress, but I did finish the Red scarf in time for the wedding - I've been spending some time doing dyework and spinning as well :) Hope you all had a wonderful, healthy and safe holidays :D

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Little Bag

Little Baggy

Just a little bag for whatever. Generally I give them away as dice bags, but I ran out of people to give them to. Basically I *heavily* altered this pattern from knit picks.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Blue Hourglass Sweater - done!

This is my completed blue Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This is a great project! It was so fast and absolutely fool-proof. I loved doing the hemmed edges. I want all my projects to be hemmed from now on! So, now I'm working a pair of fingerless mitts in a bluish yarn. I hope to have those finished this weekend. Happy Blue Holidays everyone!
BTW: pay no attention to the red umbrella. or dog leash. oops!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

What a way to incorporate knitting and politics eh?

Courtesy Womens e-News which is a great place to find out what's happening to/with/for women around the world.

Monday, December 18, 2006

A trip to the frog pond

Well, I had been knitting diligently on my Baudelaires, had hit gauge and everything, but the fabric was too loose - I was part way up the leg knitting away, hoping for the best thinking perhaps I might be able to shrink them to size....but the yarn of course is superwash, and the thought of throwing the socks in the washing machine in an attempt to felt them (even though the yarn is superwash) was too daunting. I rechecked my gauge, and things seemed fine, though as I mention, the knitted fabric has quite a bit of give to it - so much give that the sock was a bit loose on me, and then I put it on my husband's foot and it fit him fairly well, but still a little baggy in places. I started tinking back, and after a half hour of that, I tried doing a controlled rip back...and well, the socks are now restarted on smaller needles. *sigh*

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Finally! Blue Knits!

The only reason I haven't been posting is that I don't knit a lot of blues--although I recently acquired some new blue yarns that I'll be able to knit up and I've finished/started the objects below.

First up is a baby hat and socks from Knits from the Heart (a great book of patterns, by the way--I've used it more than any of my other books this year). These were for my mother's former babysitter (I have very little sisters, ages 7-11). She just had a little boy named Dylan (after being told throughout her pregnancy that she was having a girl for whom I knit a pink hat and socks, so these are actually replacements).

Baby Dylan goodies
Sugar and Cream, blue variegated. These are actually done and gifted now; I just forgot to take a picture after I finished.

Hat on size 6 needles; socks on size 5. The hat looks much bigger than the 6mos-1yr size it was intended to be. Hmmm.


And I've started Fetching from Knitty using this yarn, purchased at a 40% off sale. So. Soft.

Cashshoft_woo
That is Rowan Cashsoft DK, y'all. Woohoo! I'm knitting them doubled. Mmmm, so nice!


Last night at a yarn swap I got about 1300 yds of Reynold's Mandalay (SILK!) in a blue tweed. Man, do I love me some tweed! I'm thinking about this pattern.

So there are blue knits in my future. Yay! Blog fodder. :)

As far as the political blues, boy do I have them! I'm really, really concerned about the chimp-in-chief rejecting all the rational recommendations from the ISG and commissioning his own from those who are likely to give him the answers he wants. And when Saudi Arabia says jump, how high can Dick Cheney jump? These are dangerous times and we need smart people to balance the power away from the nuts in the white house!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Better pictures

And I realized I am knitting something blue, though it's not entirely blue. I'll have to take pictures of it this evening to post here along with a description of what it is and that damn knitting 321 stitches in a 10row pattern is a pain in the ass; my mom better love me forever.

Anyway, the first picture shows the pattern in much more detail. I still haven't blocked it mainly because I'm lazy but I have next week for that. The second shows off the beautiful colors. The yarn was a pleasure to work with and I not only recommend the pattern, but the yarn as well (but the 2 don't necessarily have to go together).

Sunday, December 10, 2006

I've really been enjoying everyone's knitting, the projects, on-going and finished...beautiful, stunning knitting.....I'm still somewhat buried in the holiday knitting, fortunately some of it has been blue...here's a couple pair of mansocks finished....whew.



And more on the to-do list..... I am so loving the current 'pregnancy in the White House'......that her parents are human after all and...looking forward to the birth of their grandchild.....as they should be.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

As promised...


Here's a photo of my scarf as it now stands. So far the soysilk is working beautifully for the cables. It really POPS and has a texture very similar to real silk. It's also very easy to work with and not too splitty at all if you work it on bamboo needles. :) I've included a scan of the label for any who might want to try out this marvellous yarn. I got it from Yarnivore in San Antonio, but I'm sure you could find it elsewhere online. I highly highly reccomend this stuff... it is AWESOME (and the price is pretty reasonable too!)


So far it's almost 2 feet long. It was originally intended for my grandma for christmas but my mom is probably going to get it since she's been drooling over it and my grandma said she didn't want another scarf. LOL So much for my carefully laid christmas knitting plans.

Frog Plague

I haven't posted since my pics of my blue yarn shortly after the blog started. I was beset by a frog plague and after multiple failed projects I gave up for a week and started making non-blue simple things for a while. Now I'm back to a blue project (having given up on the original plan). It's a simple cabled scarf in blue oasis bamboo yarn. Now I just need to get it photographed... rashly assuming the frogs haven't disabled my camera on top of hiding it. Damn Ye Frogs! *shakes fist at mischevious amphibians everywhere* They attacked my camera and stole it shortly after I captured this photo of their mastermind:

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Another FO ;)

Alright.... so it's not really blue - that's my quicky presto-chango photo editing skills put to work :)

I am working diligently on the Baudelaires, which are coming along quite nicely - though I'm not making as much progress on them as I have on the shawls of late...and I might have to set them aside for a red scarf for a friend's wedding - I'm so happy for her, but this was a last minute kind of development!

Anyhow, if you want to read about my Red Shetland Triangle shawl, cruise on over to my blog :)

Monday, December 04, 2006

Catching up!


I am so behind on blogging and have been meaning to get over here with some pics of my blue yarn and projects. Finally! I'm here! And with pics, even!

First, my blue stash...

The laceweight Merino that looks black is actually a dark navy blue. Others have lots of blue in them but some are not all blue.




And second, my blue roving... Okay, so it's got a lot of pink in it. If you unroll the pink bats though, there's a lot of blue inside.


So I spun it...


And here's what I got...


It's honestly about half pink and half blue. I'm thinking about making a scarf out of it because I got about 170 yds total.

And last but not least, the project I'm currently working on...


This is the Victorian Lace Shawl from the Elann website. I'm making it out of JaggerSpun laceweight yarn in Sapphire, and am knitting 4 strands together. It's a dream to knit with! This shawl will be a gift for my grandmother, who did not teach me to knit but has spent years knitting slippers for the entire family. It's now my turn to give something to her.

By the way, everyone's projects look fantastic! It's such a pleasure to hop onto this website after being absent for several weeks and to see what all has been going on. It's wonderful inspiration!

Fly by


Just a quick fly by, finished Shedir.....it's a fiddly knit but really enjoyed watching the pattern come about...I used the Rowan Calmer, colour is Pool, and although the yarn is soft, it's a cotton blend and I honestly wasn't that thrilled with it.......I do think I would consider doing another one, perhaps using KnitPicks cotton, Shine...which is machine washable, perhaps after the holidays I'll make her another one, easier care and all that.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Long overdue first post


Realized today that I still hadn't posted anything here, so I figured I'd better do so before y'all think I'm some kind of red mole or something! Here's my current blue project OTN, the Ballband Dishcloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting. As you can see, I've completed one and am about halfway through another (using my blue Denise needles).

I haven't yet taken a picture of my stash of blue yarn; I'll try to get that done this weekend.
Knit on!

The best laid plans...

So, yesterday the UPS guy drops off my Peace Fleece order. I now have 8 hanks of yummy Baghdad Blue yarn!!! So in a flurry of inspiration I decide to rummage through the stash and put together a picture of my blue stash. I have everything all nicely arranged in a basket, and I take a picture. I also took a picture of my first blue project, Fetching in a neat turquoise. Then the trouble starts when my computer, for some reason, doesn't recognize that I've plugged the camera into it. I can't download my pics onto the computer, so I can't share them with everyone yet :( Even my kids were stumped on this one, and they're professionals when it comes to the camera :) I didn't have time to tinker with it again last night, but I'll get them up here eventually.

As of last night when I went to bed, I was just about finished with the second glove; just have the last few rounds plus the thumb to do, et voila! Next up is to finish my holiday knitting; my Montera order also came in yesterday, and now I can make that jacket for my dad, the Charcoal Ribbed Cardigan in the holiday gifts issue of Interweave Knits. Then I can get started on my Baghdad Blue sweater for me. Yippee!!

blue hourglass progress

First, this picture is sideways and I have no idea why. I didn't take it that way. Something's up with Blogger I suppose. Anyway...
Hourglass Sweater now has sleeve one! This is an amazing sweater. I Love the way it's constructed. I think you graft under the sleeves Zimmerman-style. Now I'm on sleeve two. I measured and the sleeves are shorter than they should be, but it's cotton and will stretch (please?) But other than that, the measurements are coming out perfectly! I don't think there is any way to try it on just get though. The underside of the sleeves are still on stitch holders. It looks small but I'm planning on the stretch factor coming into play. I just love this blue color!