Happy Halloween a la June Cleaver!

Success!

The Berdien's Boxes scarf is finally complete and gifted--huzzah!

More information will be posted soon, for now enjoy the pictures!

A Challenge--any takers?

On another note, I challenge somebody to remake this sweater:






















J.Crew has definitely caught my eye this time. Seriously. it's 1.5 gauge-- That's madness! And it's a whole cardigan in garter stitch-- Let's be realistic here. I bet whatever anybody makes to mimic this, it won't cost them $175.00 to do so! Click the image for more info on it, hopefully somebody pursues this one!

It's a secret...but how?

So how is it possible for me to update you on my progress when I'm working on a gifted item? I want to post pictures but I know that the receiver occasionally checks this page. I suppose it will have to be done in words, despite words being slightly less fun. I'm knitting a beautiful pattern which is taking the form of a scarf. The pattern is called Berdien's Boxes and it's from Stahman's Shawls & Scarves by Myrna A.I. Stahman. It is grey with some dark blue accents and is coming out beautifully so far (lots of chart reading!) I will post pictures next Sunday as that is when this will be gifted--until then, no other updates except Tree Jacket is growing quite nicely; sort of like a real tree!

I Knit with Arrested Development!

For those of you out there who knit while watching the comic genius of the greatest show to ever grace a television network, this it for you! Arrested Development, you are missed!










Kudos to the graphic design awesomeness of my brother, Joel, for whipping this up so quickly!

"Pull over!" "No, it's a cardigan, but thanks for noticing!"

WARNING. This is an abnormally long post--continue with caution and remember to blink!

October 6th? really? I feel like it hasn't been 10 days since my last post. I guess that's what comes of starting a knitting blog while simultaneously going to college full time. (What was I thinking?)

Dumb question. I know what I was thinking! I was thinking about how cool it was that this sort of thing existed--blogs I mean. I love getting feedback on my projects and seeing what everyone else is doing too. How fantastic. Okay, knitting update:

Forecast = finished sans buttons. Do I like the result? Errrr Yes?. I mean I do....maybe? I'm certainly not shouting from the rooftops about it. Why? Gauge. I hate the word, and I hate to admit it, but yes; it does make a difference. Here's a photo:

What's that you say? What happened to the notion of this being a cardigan? Wellllllllllll that kind of got nixed after a trip to my favorite yarn shop of all time (Iris Fine Yarns) and some consultations from my mother, who's opinion on such matters I value quite highly. So that's that. Done. Finito. I feel like it's a successful first sweater, and I can't help but feel a certain sense of accomplishment knowing that it's finished. That sense of accomplishment also comes from showing the people who accuse me of never finishing anything that I did indeed finish something. ahem.

Whey else haven't I posted lately? Well, I've found that it's hard to knit and post blog messages at the same time. Very hard. When I tried doing both at once I either ended up dropping a stitch or typing an expletive by accident when my fingers slipped. So, instead of blogging, I was knitting, working, and going to classes. Mind you those are in no particular order.....again, ahem.

SO, here's what I've been up to:

Pattern: The Back to School U-Neck vest from Fitted Knits
Designer: Stefanie Japel
Yarn of Choice: Cascade 220 in Plum #9474
Cast on: 10/6


Top:A photo my boyfriend graciously took while he sat [bored] on the couch watching me knit.
Middle:I always think it's exciting when knitted things begin to look like actual garments...huzzah for a gauge check this time....
Bottom: I'm not exactly sure why I chose to do a closeup on this particular spot. It happens to be the location of a major, but livable, knitting error on my part.




I do like knitting this vest so far, I find for the amount of time put into it (not much as far as knitted things go), it has a high return on investment. Return on investment?? Gah I hate my financial accounting course for pervading other areas of my life--especially my hobbies! Those should be off limits! Anyway, I alluded to it in my caption above, but the only mistake on this one so far is the increases I did for the bust shaping. Apparently I can't read well. More so that I like to read what I want to see. This vest would have been finished twice now if I hadn't had to rip out the waffle stitch portion twice--it was almost enough to turn me off to the whole idea of making this vest. Luckily, I gave it another shot and even though the increases still aren't right, they work and my stitch counts are right on now. This vest still has to be put on time-out on occasion, but that's just because row counting doesn't work when you knit on the go between classes. Now onto the next project

Pattern: Tree Jacket
Designers: the super trendy Zephyr girls from www.zephyrstyle.com
Yarn of Choice: Cascade 220 in Azure #8892
Cast on: 10/15



Left: The neck of Tree Jacket modeled on one of the vases my talented boyfriend whipped up on the wheel.



Below: Another angle of the super fun yarn-overs. I mean who doesn't love fun yarn overs?

Tree Jacket is really fun to knit so far. Granted it's only been one day and I'm only about 4 inches into it, but I have a good feeling about this one. On a non-knitting related note, I'll bet I'm the only one who thinks this, but I laugh every time I read the title "Tree Jacket". For some reason, that name conjures up the image of this thing which is actually Treebeard from the LOTR trilogy. Why the strong connection? I have no idea. Hopefully my sweater will come out looking better than that when I'm finished.

Okay, back to knitting information: I love working with Cascade 220, which is a comment I forgot to mention about my vest too. Before I go any further, I want to apologize to my mom since I sortof told her I was going to send this yarn back to Indiana where it came from. **Mom, I'm sorry...the color and I bonded since I got back to school--you know how I am with turquoise! **Anyhoo, I started this one because it was voted as the SKC Knitalong project for this fall and I obviously had to participate. How exciting! There will be more pictures to come as it grows bigger, but for now, this is what I have going on my needles.

This concludes my obscenely long post. I did warn you that this would be long--feel free to administer eye drops at this time.

Look what I made today!....(and then un-made later on)

So I am as guilty as guilty comes when knitting multiple projects is concerned. I can't help myself. I like to have variety and sometimes that means working on more than one thing at one time. Okay, more than 3 things. Or 5 things. Or..well...we won't get into it. Regardless, since I haven't come to a decision about the sleeve length of my Forecast, I decided to start something else I had yarn stashed away for. What I whipped up was this; the Bold and Bulky mini Cardi from Fitted Knits. It started well enough, but when the time came for the collar and edging, I just decided to scrap it. It's not that I won't remake it again someday in a larger size, but for right now, it just wasn't working. Granted it's only about 3-4 hours of actual work put into this thing (aka the time it took me to have quick conversations in the UHP office and to watch Meet Joe Black) here is what I had at the end of that time.




















And this is what I have now that I've ripped it all apart.....



















There is an indescribable feeling of catharsis as one rips out a knitted garment....I had this feeling tonight as my cardigan was reduced to 3 balls of yarn. Possibilities are endless though--I intend to not let them go to waste.

Thoughts on sleeve length?

So, originally I was going to make this bad boy full sleeved. Then as I got knitting and trying on, I realized that I kind of like them where they are right now. One of the next sweaters I'm planning on knitting, however, will be short sleeved for sure. I have enough yarn right now to do either length and I need help deciding. Thoughts?

What could I buy with $150?

I have fallen in love with a skein of yarn and it's color. Tilli Thomas, why do you make such beautiful yarn that I can't buy? The elegant yarn above is named "Pure and Simple"looks uh-mazing . I want to see in person like none other. The Sequiny version, aptly named "Disco Lights", would be in the same color "atmosphere" as the gorgeous grey above. They just didn't have a hank of the disco online. Sigh....

I have not fallen in love with it's price. YIKES. We're talkin':
3 skeins @ $28 each
2 skeins @ $38 each
pattern @ a reasonable $7

Bringing the total for this garment to a whopping $167.00
but WAIT! if I were to buy all of this online, the discounted kit would be at 150.00 for everything. What a bargain.

I'd like to take this time to mention that I am a college student. A college student that doesn't have $150 dollars to be spending on one sweater's worth of yarn. Seriously. This sweater has been put in the "when I'm established and successful"category.

But you know...if I ever were to acquire such beautifulness before then, I would be making this sweater:















I fear that my needles can't keep up with my eyes.....

Yeah. It's Called an Obsession

I have a full fledged knitting addiction and I don't care who knows it. It is 2:05 in the A.M. and I just finished the torso of my sweater.

(and there was great rejoicing)

Here she is....