I've been doing a little knitting.

A few months ago I picked up some Mission Falls wool on clearance at my LYS. I wound up with 8 balls, and I made a few hats for the general election campaign with Knitters for Obama. We're trying to hit up swing states and focus on homeless veteran's charities.


For the most part, I used Ellen's Knit Hat pattern, although I sampled the London Beanie and The Boy Hat. The other patterns were great, but I liked the first one best for simplicity purposes. These hats are my purse projects, and I needed something that I can just throw in a bag and go.

Pattern Specs:
Patterns: Ellen's Knit Hat, London Beanie, The Boy Hat
Needles: Size 7 circs & dpns
Time: A few days a piece
Cost: $24 total, or about $3.50 each

I'm moving back to Tennessee next week, and I cannot wait. And when I say "move" - I mean, living/working there for the rest of the summer. It might only be 7 weeks, but it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to spend the 4th of July grilling out with my family.

Funk.

I've been in a funk - both in my knitting and my personal life. I've had a lot on my mind, and usually knitting works to help bring me out the funk that's going on. Not today.

However - I'm trying! Since the Obama Knitting Mania, I've tried to keep working on a few smaller projects so that I'm at least being productive. I figure that one day I'll snap out of it if I just keep at it for awhile.

So I made these:

Project Specifics:
Pattern: Feather & Fan; Waffle Texture Ensemble
Yarn: Sugar & Cream - Swimming Pool & Landscape
Needles: Size 7
Time: About 2 hours each
Cost: About $1 in stash yarn

The photos don't do the waffle stitch cloth justice. It makes a great textured cloth, but I'd recommend people use a solid or semisolid color. I think it would make it "pop" a bit more.

I also made a hat...

I wanted something simple to work on while I was flipping back and forth between CNN and the Bourne Identity on cable. It really was a hard choice - Matt Damon being a badass or knowing what's going on with the Obama/Hillary neverending saga. In the end, Matt won.



Project Specifications:
Pattern: London Beanie
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool - Dark green & light green
Time: One afternoon of TV knitting
Cost: About $3 (yay for sales at my LYS!)

This hat turned out a little small. It fit me nicely, but it's for a charity knitting drive where most of the recipients will be men. I have a small head, and the other other adult that I've knit a hat for is the Boyfriend who has a HUUUUGE head. I realize that all men won't be competing with him for Largest Dome in North America, but I expect they'll be somewhere in between.

If I make this hat again, I'd cast on extra stitches and knit an extra inch or two before doing the decrease rounds. It's a cute and simple pattern with lots of room for variations.

My Noro Splurge!

Why yes.. I do know how to knit things other than baby hats!

When Amy and I went to see the Yarn Harlot in April, we of course went yarn shopping. Busy Hands was having a sale, and I picked up Noro at 20% off. It was still a little on the pricey side, but I just couldn't pass it up.

I cast on for this scarf almost immediately, but it took nearly a month to finish. Between exams and 35 baby caps, I had a few other things on my plate.

I like how it turned out. I picked one colorway that was mostly pink and another that was blue/green.

Every once and awhile the colors would be too similar, so I had to do some split splicing to make the stripes a bit shorter. I probably have the equivalent of 1/4 of a skein leftover.

After blocking (although it really didn't need it, I just wanted to wash the cat hair off) - it wound up being 85" long. It wraps around my neck and still has enough "dangle" to make me happy. I'm a fan of long scarves.

Although it's allegedly summer around these parts, we didn't get out of the 50's today. If this keeps up, I might get to use this scarf well before the fall!

Final Specs:
Pattern: Noro Scarf by Jared Flood, Free
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, 4 skeins - $36
Needles: Size 8's
Time: One month of on & off (mostly off) knitting

Two-Thirds.

As of 4:18 this afternoon, I am officially 2/3 of the way through law school. It felt amazing to turn in my last paper for the semester. I finished up exams Tuesday, but I still had a bear of a paper to finish. Before they unleash us onto the world as lawyers, we have to satisfy this enormous writing requirement. I decided to get mine out of the way this semester, and it feels like a HUGE weight has been lifted.

To celebrate, I got take out sushi, poured myself a giant glass of wine and plopped in front of the tv and knit another hat for Obama. I haven't gotten much accomplished other than hats these days.

These guys went to Kentucky:


These went to Oregon:

(I swear, I don't have a prejudice against Oregon. I hear it's quite lovely, actually. I had just pledged my hats to Kentucky instead, but at the last minute I realized I had extras so I mailed them out West.)

And these went wee wee wee, all the way home. Or, maybe just to West Virgina.


There's so many people involved with this project it's insane! West Virgina got a donation of a little more than 100 caps. Here's a picture of the loot that Melissa collected:

St. Patrick's Day Socks (A Week Late)

I knit as fast as my little fingers would let me, but I still didn't these socks finished by St. Patrick's Day. Silly school stuff - always getting in the way of perfectly good knitting time.

I finished these over the weekend, and I really like them. I'm loving the color! I've definitely been on a green kick in my personal life lately.

I can't wait to wear these socks! They feel really comfy when I model them.

(Don't you hate it that self-modeling sock pictures always make the model look like she has cankles?)

I had several comments (both in real life and on the blog) of people not thinking that these would fit around the wearer's ankles. Rest assured - they do. Honestly, I never really thought about it until so many people asked, but in pictures like this one, it really does look like there's an extremely small leg that's going to fit into the sock. However, the leg is made out of ribbing which stretches for eternity, so once you put it on, it fits perfectly!

Final Specs:
Pattern: Oak Ribbed Sock, from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needles: Size 1 dpn's
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici (Arugula), About $9
Time: 3 weeks total without a lot of non-knitting school time in there

Calorimetry

I'd seen a zillion people make the calorimetry and it looks so cute on them! On me? Not so much.

I reduced the number of cast on stitches like people have recommended, but that wasn't the problem. I used some of my favorite yarn in one of my favorite colors, but that wasn't the problem either. It just wasn't... me.

However, as long as I live in the frozen tundra (aka Michigan), I'll wear this guy.

Finished Specs:
Pattern: Calorimetry from Knitty, Free
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Jewel Blue, $11
Needles: Size 8 circs

Waiting Scarf

Scarves are definitely my go-to project. When in doubt about what to cast on next, a scarf is always high on my list. Ironically, I only have two scarves that I wear that are handmade. The rest all get donated to charities. That's the fate of my latest scarf.

I started this scarf without a pattern in mind, and just kinda made it up as I went. This was my travel project for a few weeks, and I really only knit on it while I was doing other things, like sitting in moot court dress rehearsals, waiting on my oil change, getting my hair colored, etc. Because knitting only happened while I was waiting on things, I started calling it my waiting scarf.

I got the yarn on sale at Threadbear a few months ago. It's Mission Falls Wool 1824 in Rhubarb. It's normally about $6 a skein, and I got it for $3. Yay for deals!


Blocking really made a world of difference. The fabric doesn't even feel the same, and it blocked out really nicely. Here's the before picture so you can see for yourself:

Final Specs:
Pattern: No real pattern.
Yarn: Mission Falls Wool 1824, 4 skeins - $12
Needles: Size 8
Time: About a month of travel knitting

Multidirectional Scarf

I'm so behind in blogland. I'm way behind in my blog reading, and it's been a month since I last posted. Oh well.. life gets in the way sometimes!

There has been some knitting happening even though it's not being reflected on the blog!

I finished up my multidirectional scarf and I've been wearing the fire out of it with all the snow and ice we've been getting lately. It "warmed up" to 40 the other day but rained all day and turned into sleet at night, so I refuse to count that as good weather.

Overall, I really like the scarf. I'm not a big fan of the sudden light purple streaks in the middle of the dark, dark purple spots, but I like the scarf in the end. Ironically, the stark contrast is what my friend Amy likes the best.

Overall Specs:
Pattern: Multidirectional Scarf, Free
Yarn: Austerman Murano, One skein - About $23
Needles: Size 9
Time: About three evenings of TV knitting

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P.S. I have yet to break my Lent promise of no yarn buying! I even held up through a HUGE sale at Threadbear.

Cleaning out the cotton stash!

This Sunday at our Knit Night, Marcy was knitting ballbands & it inspired me to knit my own. As soon as I got home, I had to cast on. I honestly have absolutely no idea what colors I used, but I do know that the yarn was Sugar n' Cream.

I love this little pattern. It's so easy & I just love the end results. I really don't know that I've seen a completed one that I've thought looked bad. Although, there are some questionable colors out there, so I'm sure that it could be done.

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth, Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Sugar n' Cream, less than half a skein of each color
Needles: Size 7
Time: About 2 hours
Total Cost: About $1


I was still in the cotton dishcloth mood today, so I cast on for another dishcloth and knit this one while I was reading for Criminal Procedure. I did more reading than knitting, but in my defense - knitting was much for exciting.


This is the Feather & Fan Dishcloth by Linda Smith. I'd never made one of these before, but I thought it was pretty. It was a surprisingly simple pattern. I noticed on Ravelry that a lot of people were getting rid of the garter ridge in between pattern repeats, and it looks fabulous. I'm definitely trying that next time.


I have no idea what I'm doing with these dishcloths. Maybe they will end up as a gift one day. For now, they are sitting in the "Finished Objects without a Home" box in my closet.

Pattern: Feather and Fan Dishcloth, Free
Yarn: Sugar n' Cream, about 3/4 of a skein
Needles: Size 7
Time: About 2 hours
Total Cost: About $1

P.S. I almost forgot to mention this groundbreaking news! Amy and I went to have our picture taken by Franklin for his 1000 Knitters Project. It was lots of fun, but I was really nervous to meet him. He came to Threadbear in Lansing, and 111 people came out for the photo shoot. Seriously.. 111 knitters came out in the snow to have their picture taken.

Imperfect Unoriginal Hat

Have you ever cast on for a project that you were really, really excited to make, yet it just didn't seem meant to be? That was me and this hat!


It all started innocently enough. I spotted this beautiful yarn at my LYS and fell in love instantly. Amy had given me a gift certificate and it was burning a hole in my pocket! I saw The Yarn and I knew that it was destined to be an Unoriginal Hat. After looking over the pattern, I figured that this would be my "bag" knitting for the week - which means that it's my go-to project for those spare minutes you find randomly.

If only it went so well. After casting on 3 times because I couldn't properly measure yarn, I got started. About an inch into the pattern, I found myself with about 10 minutes to spare, so I broke out the knitting. The next thing I know, someone had come up to me, grabbed my knitting from my hands, said "let me show you how I do it" and started knitting on my project! I kid you not.

Instead of saying anything, I just sat there speechless watching this woman proceed to knit my hat completely out of pattern. Looking back now, I can think of all kinds of witty things, but at the moment - I could will no words to come out of my mouth. Nothing.

So, after that debacle, my hat sat in time out for a few days because I couldn't bear to rip it out. Frogging this on dpn's just drives me batty. Turns out, I didn't rip far enough back and I completely missed a cable crossing, somewhere along the way I dropped a stitch that could never be found, and then I crossed other cables too soon. Good times!

The point of the story is that at the end of the day, I didn't care. I thought about ripping it back and starting over.. but then I looked outside at the 2-3 inches of snow that had fallen over the past 24 hours. I decided that I liked my Imperfect Unoriginal Hat just the way it was.


Pattern: Unoriginal Hat by The Yarn Harlot
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Chunky in Whale's Road, $11
Needles: Size 10.5 dpn's
Time: About 3-4 hours of total knitting/frogging time

Sparkley goodness!

A girlfriend of mine is celebrating a birthday today. When I made this scarf for another friend of mine earlier this month, she strongly started dropping hints that she wanted a scarf too. So.. I made her a scarf.

She has this really awesome hat that is charcoal and white with sparkles, so I thought I would make her a sparkly scarf to match. The colors look a little washed out in the pictures, but believe me, there's some serious sparkle in this sucker!

I tried a few different stitch patterns and then realized that I just needed to go plain old ribbing to get the full effect. It was a quick knit. I picked up the yarn Saturday and had all but the last few inches done by Monday. I finished up the last of it this morning, cast off.. and then whipped up a little sparkly gift bag on my new handy-dandy sewing machine!

I shopped the 50% off the clearance fabric sale at JoAnn's and picked up some silver fabric and lining. I just kinda winged the bag, but I think it looks ok. I only got 1/8 a yard of each, but I have enough leftover for another gift bag! Yay for remnants!



In Summary:
Pattern: 2x2 ribbed scarf
Yarn:

• 1 skein Cascade 220, Gray, $6.60
  
• 2 skeins Filtes King Australian Merinos, $8.60
  

Needles: Size 11
Time: One knit night and one evening of movie night
Total Cost: $24

Mysterious appearances.

It's amazing what you find when you clean your apartment. I don't even remember knitting this, but obviously I did.


Pattern: Bib O' Love, Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Sugar n' Cream
Needles: Size 7
Time: I have no clue.

Benjamin's Cable Hat

I made this hat for my brother at Christmas, and then made a second one to donate. Over Thanksgiving, I taught my mom how to do cables. She was so shocked at how easy it was. We then sat and designed a simple cable scarf for her to make, and she decided that it was going to be my brother's Christmas present, and I should make him a hat. So, like a good daughter, I cast on for a hat.

I did a little bit of a modification and added about an inch or so of ribbing at the bottom.

Pattern: Chunky Cabled Beanie, Free
Yarn: Less than 1 skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, Charcoal - $4
Needles: 10.5 dpn's
Time: 1 night of TV knitting

The only cute for a knitting emergency

While studying for final exams last fall, I had a knitting emergency. You know the kind. The "I-Must-Knit-Something-Before-I-Go-Crazy" kind. So, I dug through my stash and pulled out some Lion Brand Homespun that I bought more than a year ago and had forsaken for more delicious yarns. I immediately cast on for a Diagonal Baby Blanket.


I've made like 3 of these things so far, so I hated to make yet another carbon copy, but - again, this was a knitting emergency. The requirements were that the project be simple and made on big needles. It really just fit the bill.

Again though, the stupid yarn was different dyelots when it said that it wasn't. So, some of my blanket is a different color. Oh well, what can you do? I wove a purple ribbon through the eyelets to spice things up a bit, and personally, I think it's really cute.

Pattern: Diagonal Baby Blanket, Free
Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun in lavender sachet, 2 skeins; less than $10
Extras: 1 spool of ribbon, less than $2
Needles: Size 13 circs
Time: About 2 weeks of random knitting
Total Cost: Less than $12

Have a great weekend everyone!

Another one for the collection.

I'd like to apologize up front if this post sounds churchy. It isn't meant to be. It's just meant to be about things that are important to me.

I have to admit, sometimes it seems like I'm sending all my knitting off to others, and it makes me feel really selfish for a moment. Why shouldn't I be making things just for me? It's my free time, and as I don't have much of it as it is, I should be able to reap the rewards of my knitting. Then, there's times that I realize just how important my church's shawl ministry is. While we were doing Meals on Wheels on Christmas Eve, I noticed that a lady was wearing a beautiful scarf. Then, I noticed that the label on it said "UMC Shawl Ministry" and realized its significance. This lady had lost her son during the past year in an unexpected accident. The scarf was more than just a scarf. It was a symbol of all the love that we as a group had for the woman and her family.

That realization really spoke to me, and I've decided that I'm going to try to do at least one item a month for the shawl ministry during 2008. I don't do resolutions, so I'm choosing instead to call this one a goal. Big and/or time consuming items count as one thing, while baby hats will only receive half credit.

So, in the spirit of knitting for others, here's item #1. I did another So Called Scarf because I just love the pattern. To be honest, I tried about three different patterns and nothing at all looked good enough to me. The yarn really pooled and I was concerned that it wouldn't do that with the second skein and one side of the scarf would look different - it didn't. Both skeins behaved the same, so I lucked out!


I used Vanna's Choice in Charcoal Print. I packed really, really inappropriately for such a long visit, and found myself at Hobby Lobby itching for a new project. A knitter must have something on her needles at all times!

Overall, I was pretty happy with the finished project. I don't really care for the yarn too much. It just kinda felt weird in my hands, but it was a nice quick project for me, and that made me happy.

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf
Yarn: Vanna's Choice in Charcoal Print, 2 skeins
Needles: Size 11
Time: A couple days of TV knitting with the fam
Total Cost: Less than $6

Mindless Knitting

While I was home over break, my mom really wanted me to make my step-sister a scarf to match her newly decorated room. It's bright pink and bright green and is perfect for a 13 year old girl. She'd already picked out the yarn and told me exactly in Wal-Mart where I could find it. How can you say no to that?

You can't. I didn't even try. I just said "Yes ma'am, I'll pick that up in town tomorrow."

I actually made two of these scarves. One was made in an evening while watching TV with the fam, and the other was knitted on here and there - specifically while watching National Treasure 2. (Great movie! I loved that they set it up for a third movie by using my favorite random number - 47.)

Pattern: Garter Stitch Scarf
Yarn: 1.5 skeins of Wal-Mart No Boundaries, $4
Needles: Size 11's
Time: About 4 hours each

Another Scarf Completed!

I'm back from Tennessee and I miss everyone already. I did a lot of knitting, a lot of eating, and a lot of visiting and loved every minute of it. I finished a lot of little projects, so I'm going to post pictures of them periodically because there's just too many for a single post.

The first thing I completed was My So Called Scarf for my friend Meredith's birthday. I wanted something easy but not completely and totally mindless, so this was a great project for me. I wrapped it up and tied a ribbon around it to make it cute for mailing. It seems that while I was in Tennessee it was freezing here in Michigan so the scarf came in handy for her.


Here's my mom modeling the scarf. She's so cute. She fell in love with the pattern and made me teach her how to make it. She's about a foot and a half into her first My So Called Scarf right now.

I love the stitch pattern, and the semi-solid Malabrigo really just did wonders with the pattern, in my opinion. I liked the pattern so much that I've actually made another one since. Details to come!


Pattern: My So Called Scarf, Free
Needles: Size 11
Yarn: 2 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Velvet Grapes

Eyelet Cardigan

I started this sweater in August when I was home in Tennessee for a few weeks. Mom and I went yarn shopping, and they had this sweater knit up in this color on a model. I fell in love with it instantly and had to make it - in that exact colorway. (Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Pickle) Of course, that yarn store was out of my color. So, I called my trusty yarn store in Lansing, and they shipped the yarn out to me immediately.

I was so excited. I cast on immediately, and then the project went on the back burner when school started. I need instant gratification during the semester, it seems. I finally finished it a few weeks ago, and I really like the turnout, although I have something funky going on at the sleeves that needs some repairs. It's too wide & likes to fall off the shoulders a lot. The 80's Flashdance look is so out right now.

I made some modifications from the original pattern. The sleeves and the body were supposed to be cropped, but I made the body long enough to cover my belly and the sleeves are 3/4 length.
I used wooden buttons that I picked up from Jo-Ann's. They aren't anything too special, but I figured that the eyelet pattern had enough "umph" to handle plain buttons. Plus, sometimes simple is better.

Ironically, I'm currently working on Tomato and it's in the exact same color, only a different yarn. Apparently I really, really like green lately.

Final Specs:
Pattern: Blue Sky Alpacas Eyelet Cardigan, $4.50
Yarn: 7 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, $66.50
Needles: Size 7 circs
Time: August-November off & on knitting

Tulip Sweater - Check!

I realize that it seems that I've been a knitting machine lately, but in all honesty, most of the projects that I've been completing have been hanging out on the needles for awhile, just needing an hour or two of work to pass over into the "FO" pile.

For example, I got the replacement yarn for the Tulip Sweater weeks ago, and it sat on my table just mocking me for quite some time.

I finally got around to putting on the neckband and the icord tie. This sweater marked my first experience with icord. I have to say, I think it's kinda fun.. however, applied icord is just a pain in the butt. Literally, for every one stitch that you want to progress down the line, you have to knit at least 3. It takes forever!! But, it looks really nice & neat when it's all said and done.

It's all finished except for the 5 billion ends that need to be woven in - but, that's fun for another day. By the way, if you have not knit with Dream in Color yarn, you really need to! It's so soft & squishy and comes in the most amazing colors.

Final Specs:
Pattern: Tulip Sweater by Lindsey Pekney from Dream in Color (included in kit)
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy (Kit from Threadbear) - $32
Needles: Size 5 & 7 circs and double points
Time: About a week of TV knitting
Total Cost: $32