Archive for February, 2006
So I cast on for Butterfly this week and have knitted most of the back. I’ve been sick all weekend and, thus, have had plenty of knitting time inbetween my spurts of sleeping. I’m really enjoying the pattern! It’s very fun, very easy. And I love knitting with Noro. Love it. I love seeing what colors are going to be knitted up next. HOwever, I’m not so sure what I think about this colorway. I don’t have much of a choice, I bought all of this yarn for this project and, hell or high water, I will knit this sweater with this yarn. But the colorway is a bit different. Hopefully I will feel better about it as I continue knitting it.
I also felted Boo yesterday. Here is a pic of the pieces before felting. This was my first felting experience, and I had fun doing it! The felted pieces are about half the size of the original pieces and the are very fuzzy. I kind of wish I would have sewn them all together before felting because now I have to figure out how to sew these things together. Do I use my sewing machine? Do I hand sew? I was kind of planning on machine sewing but now I’m thinking they are too thick.
If I feel up to it later I am going to go to the fabric store to see if I can find some bamboo handles for it. But the I think, for the moment, I am going to go pass out.
I got some yarn this week, but I think I will save it for another post. Have a good Monday 
February 27th, 2006
She’s ablocked and finished. And I wore her today.
Pattern: Bay from Rowan’s Magazine #36
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Two balls of Nightly. 4 balls of Pearl.
Needles: Denise sizes 5 and 7. Size 3 addi turbos for the cuffs, neckline, and bottom hem.
Started: December something, 2005. Sometime in the middle of the month.
Finished: February 22, 2006.
Read all about my progress here.
Here’s another shot of the front:
And a shot of the back:
And a closeup of the neckline:
I really, really like it! I wore it today and got lots of compliments. I loved knitting with Kidsilk Haze. It’s a beautiful yarn. This was my first Rowan pattern, too. Not scary at all. (for some reason, I have been daunted by Rowan patterns.) Overall, a great experience.
February 22nd, 2006
Being that I had Friday and Saturday off (I was planning on going to Stitches in Santa Clara this weekend but couldn’t afford it, after all) and that it was -15 degrees farenheit on Friday, with the windchill factor, I pretty much finished Bay. The only thing left to do is knit the icord for the neck, and then block. I tried it on after I put it all together and, again, I was disappointed in the finished product, as I tend to be. Yeah, the horizontal stripes aren’t super flattering on me at the moment… Maybe blocking it will make me feel better about it. The sweater is nice, despite my current lack of self confidence. Fits really well and has a nice shape to it. It fits without feeling overly tight. I will post an official final shot after it’s blocked and the icord is finished.
I also managed to finish knitting the sides of Boo this weekend, as well. This knit is my offical sports-events knit. I knitted the first side while watching the Superbowl and the second side was knit while watching my niece’s basketball game on Saturday. I hope I didn’t embarrass her by knitting at her game, but, I tell you, knitting stockinette while watching sports is the way to go. The nervous energy produced while watching a game is perfect for knitting stockinette! Incidentally, she did really well! She’s a kick-ass basketball player. My big brother has brainwashed her from infancy to play basketball, fanatic that he is. And it has paid off.
So guess what all of this “almost done” stuff means? It means that I can start Butterfly soon! I may even cast on today! Yay! I have been dying to start this project since I bought the yarn. I can’t wait!
February 20th, 2006
I present to you the front of Bay. Guess what I did? Accidentally knitted the large size instead of the medium. And there is no way in hell I am unraveling this yarn. So I really, really, hope it’s not going be a gigantic problem. I figure I could use a little extra fabric in the front, anyway, since I’VE GAINED 15 POUNDS SINCE I’VE MOVED HERE. ahem. sorry about that little outburst.
anyhoo. . .
Again, nothing spectacularly new learned here. Simple shaping of the body. The shoulders have a bit of shaping like the back, which I kind of like. I am now on to the arms. yay! My goal is to have them knitted up this week and then have a seaming party next weekend. Since I’m taking Friday and Saturday off I may be able to accomplish this. You might just see a finished Bay by next weekend!
Lately I’ve been inspired to create. My mom is a painter (watercolors) and I’ve been accompanying her on some gallery-crawls (so to speak). In Spokane we have this thing called “First Friday” in which the first friday of every month the galleries Downtown are open until late so people can go gallery-crawling. It’s really fun and so very inspiring. I’ve been really attracted to the works of the The Northwest Paper Mache guild. I really, really would like to learn how to do that . But in the meantime, I was thinking about some other ways I could express myself. I love the fiber arts (Obviously). So I remembered, around the same time I got back into knitting (in February 2003), in fact, the same craft fair in which I purchased the yarn that catapulted me into my current obsession with knitting, I took a class on Igolochkoy (Russian Punchneedle Embroidery) from Gail Bird. I thought I would dig out the stuff I bought at the craft fair. I found the little piece that I did at her workshop:
and another piece that I did later at home:
I remember really liking how the finished product looked. Ms. Bird had some books and some examples in her booth of some really beautiful pieces done by an artist that I can’t remember.
I played around today with a piece that I started about two years ago but didn’t finish. I’m really rusty, but I think I will pick it up again and see where it takes me!
February 13th, 2006
So here is the back of Bay! She’s moving along quite nicely, now that I’m spending more time on her. I can’t wait to finish this sweater so I can wear it. The kidsilk haze is soo soft. I’m loving it. There really isn’t very much exciting to say about it. Regular waist shaping, nothing spectacularily new there. But the neck shaping was a bit different. I almost thought the pattern was wrong but I decided to just trust it and go with it, and turned out okay. You can’t really tell in the picture, but the top of the shoulders has a bit of shaping to it.
I’ve been dying to knit the adorable felted bag in the Winter 2005/06 Rowan magazine called “Boo.” But buying the yarn for it would have been way too expensive for me, for something like this anyway. So I bought some Patons merino wool yesterday and decided to cast on and knit on it during the Superbowl. BTW, knitting and football really go hand in hand, IMHO. It was the perfect thing to while nervously watching my team lose. Gave me something to do with my hands. Anyway, this is my first felted project and I’m so excited. I am going to buy some really nice bamboo handles for it. And I want to put some lining inside of it, too.
Oh, and I finished another Helmet hat for my hubby. Picture is here, if you want to take a look.
Have a great week!
February 6th, 2006