Knitting the Summer Away

I am proud to announce that it is almost my one year knitting anniversary! I believe it was just before August long weekend that my knitting for dummies book arrived and I picked up my needles and began stitching away. One year later and still going strong! Anyways, it has been quite some time since I last posted but, no worries, I have been knitting up a storm (when I wasn't completely involved with the final Harry Potter book, which I am now complete and loved!)

I have completed many projects and I have made great progress on my sweater.

Sweater Update: The sweater is going great. I've been at it about 2 months, but keep in mind that I do not work on it every single day. I've been going in spurts with the sweater where I'll work on just it and then get bored and then go back to it. I am now completed the back of the sweater and I finished the front of the sweater on Saturday. All that is left are the two sleeves and the collar. It is a turtleneck collar so it may take me a while to figure out that part. I cast on and knit about 2 1/2 inches of the first sleeve this morning and I may go back to it later today and finish the ribbing. My ultimate goal is to have it finished before the end of summer, but if not by the end of summer I hope it will be done before the chilly fall days hit towards the end of September.

Finished Projects: I just have to say that I LOVE my One Skein Wonders book. There are so many little projects in there that take next to no time. I think my pink socks were the longest project taking about a month. It is such a great little book and some of the projects are great for using up leftover yarn. One project I completed WEEKS ago is a lovely lace bookmark using Bernat Baby fingering weight yarn (which was used for my socks) it uses such a little amount I could make a ton of these bookmarks just from my leftovers:

Another project that I pulled from One Skein Wonders is my Jamaica Pouch which is just a cute little bag knit on dpn's (although I think it would have been better to knit on a circular needle, there are a lot of stitches and I was constantly worried about them slipping off). It took me about a week to knit with Bernat Satin in lovely sapphire:

A few months ago I made my very first pair of socks. They happened to be dorm socks (slipper socks) and I knit them with just cheap Red Heart. Well I started to crave another pair of them but this time I knit them up with Red Heart Strata, which self stripes. I picked a great colour combination which is quite funky. When I first started them I was not overly crazy with the way the colour was looking but as I got further on in the sock it started to look really funky. Now I just need autumn so my feet will not sweat to death in them:

Another project I completed for which I do not have a photo is this lovely diamond scarf. I had a fair amount of Lionbrand Homespun yarn left over from a pair of mittens I made in January and this scarf from Lionbrand: Just scarves was calling out to me. I was hoping and praying to the knitting gods that I would have enough yarn to complete it. Unfortunately I was about 2 diamonds short of the full scarf. It is a little short but still beautiful and soft. I seem to have a stash of scarves and practice hats in my closet.. maybe they will become Christmas presents. If not that then I think I may donate them to a Charity for people who really need something warm in the winter.

Project on the Go: Currently, besides my sweater, I only have one project on the go. It is a lovely lace scarf from none other than One Skein Wonders (seriously love this book). I'm knitting it with Patons Lacette which is just a lovely mohair blend yarn. It is a fine weight yarn but it knit with 5 mm straight needles which creates a real airy feel. I'm in love with this scarf and it has to be done by fall because it will look magnificent with my leather jacket.

Here is a closer up shot of the scarf alone (this picture does not do this scarf justice!): Upcoming Knitting Projects/Ideas: Well I broke down the other day and purchased more knitting books. I ordered them through Chapters online since you save a ton of money by ordering them through their website than actually going to the bookstore and buying them. So in the next couple days I should be flipping through Knitting Rules: The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing and Rolling, Stitch 'N Bitch: A Knitters Design Journal, Not Your Mama's Knitting: The Cool and Creative Way to Pick up Sticks, and Liond Brand Yarn: Just Socks. I am quite excited to get these books. Perhaps I'll actually put down my One Skein Wonders book. I'm also hoping my mom will be able to get through to her cousin and get back the patterns of my grandmas that she borrowed her 4 years ago. I would love to have my grandmothers patterns, they may be quite dated but I used to spend hours looking at them as a child and they just hold fond memories for me especially now that I'm a knitter.
Anyways I best be off now. Happy Knitting!

a no picture entry.... *hangs head in shame*

No pictures... i know... i'm a disgrace. My camera is all the way upstairs along with my knitting and being a lazy day I really do not feel like taking pictures of everything and then having my supremely slow computer load them (the computer gods must be mad at me lately). I will try my hardest to post pics of everything I write about in this entry in the next.
Anyhoo, I had my registration appt. a week and a half ago and I was fortunate enough to get a spot in all my first choice classes, yay!! Now that course selection stress has vanished I can now focus a little bit more on my knitting.
The most major accomplishment, which occured Thursday night, was the completion of the back of my sweater! I was quite excited when I slipped those last stitches onto a stitch holder and placed it in my room, for safe-keeping, and brought out the requirements for the front. I have yet to cast on for the front of the sweater but that is a task for either later tonight or tomorrow.
I completed my PDA case about a week ago. It is very cute, a little bigger than my Palm but still works, and I've attached a very cute pink button. I also completed this very sweet lace bookmark using some of my leftover Bernat Baby, which I had used for my socks. It turned out really nicely, all delicate and girly. This bookmark is a great way to use up fingering weight yarn you may have hanging around, and as a bonus if you use sock yarn you can have a bookmark to match whatever socks you are wearing!
Today, being hot and humid and not exactly a great day to spend outdoors, I began another small project (hence why I didn't cast on the front of the sweater). It's called a Jamaica Pouch and it's from my One Skein wonders book. It's a little drawstring purse/pouch. It's quite adorable in the picture. I'm knitting it on dpn (4 or 4 1/2 mm, i think) with Bernat Satin yarn. I am done the base of the bag, which was not easy at first. Now i'm working on the sidings which is sort of like a ripple/wave (i can't think of how to describe it) pattern.
Any future projects in the works?? Well, yes, I'm hoping. There is this scarf in one skein wonders (okay there are 2 and I will choose eventually) and it's a worsted weight mohair yarn and I'm in love with the pattern. I think (emphasis on *think*) I may have found the right yarn for it, but I need to go an actually see it, it's so hard to actually see what it's like on the internet. The two options are from Patons (lacette or divine, methinks).
Well those are my knitting adventures from the past couple weeks. It seems as if these updates are further and far between due to the fact that I do not want to spend my days typing on the computer when i can be enjoying summer, but no worries, I am not abandoning my knitting. Happy Knitting and again pics next time, hopefully :P

Now I just need one cold day....

As of Wednesday I have completed my second pair of socks. They are adorable and near perfect (a few mistakes are to be expected). It took almost 4 weeks to complete the pair and well worth it. I'm sure I would have been done them much sooner if I hadn't been pre-occupied with working out my school timetable for next term, the last term of my BA... yay!!! I want to wear my new socks but it just happens to be summer and summer in the 'Peg is known to be hot and humid, not exactly sock wearing weather. I also don't exactly have any shoes that will show off my socks:You can't really see it in this picture but there are little eyelits in the ribbing. You can also see a bump on my left ankle, that would be my anklet which i was too lazy to remove before taking the picture. Aren't they adorable? I'm quite proud of them.

I had another exciting moment this week having to do with knitting. When I was a little girl I used to sit in my grandparents den with my grandma while she was knitting. She would have piles of patterns and knitting books, she also got a Mary Maxim catalogue every season. This catalogue had sweater kits and yarns and I used to spend hours leafing through the catalogues. My grandma also made me a few things out of those catalogues. One item makes an appearance every Christmas, a christmas stocking with santa on the front and it used to have a light up nose until the light burnt out. Anyways, a few months ago I was just browsing knitting websites and Mary Maxim came up... needless to say I was extrememly excited so I quickly signed up for the free catalogue. I had registered for it so long ago I had almost forgot about it so imagine my surprise when the mail came one morning and this was there:I feel like a real knitter now with this catalogue sitting on top of my knitting bag in the living room.
Sweater Update: Well the sweater is progressing. I've got a couple more inches done, a few more and I'll be able to start the shaping for the arm. Once I've got a little more done I'll post an picture.
New Project: Back in May when I got my "SNB" book almost immediatly I made a mental note of a certain project: A PDA cover. I got a Palm for Christmas and I've been looking for something to protect it but PDA covers are extremely expensive, so imagine my surprise when i finally had a pattern to knit one up myself. I'm knitting it in Bernat Handicrafter Cotton and size 4 mm needles in a really nice pink verigated colour. I'm quite liking how the colour is knitting up:

I need to knit that piece pretty long, about 10 1/2 inches, then a bit of shaping for the flap a little sewing here and there and voila, a nice home for my Palm.

That is all folks, no more knitting news. Perhaps by next time I will have another project hop onto my needles but perhaps not. Happy Summer and Happy Knitting!!

A sock addiction??? perhaps.

Well it is above 30 C here in the 'Peg today and a perfect day to sit in the nice cold basement and update the world on my knitting adventures. With the miserable and unpredictable weather the past few weeks I have had plenty of time to knit and completed a sock! I fear I may have fallen victim to the sock knitting bug. On Wednesday, after two weeks of work, I completed the sock I was making out of Bernat Baby yarn and a pattern I found in "One Skein Wonders" and after finally figuring out the kitchener stitch the toe grafting looks nearly seamless!! Here making it's world debut is my adorable little pink sock:Isn't it adorable?!?!? The next day I made sure to cast on the second one and as of this morning I was a about half done the leg:Socks give you such a feeling of accomplishment. You cast on and before you know it you have something beautiful to wear. I'm hoping that once i'm finished the second one we will have just one cool day so I can wear them without overheating. I've read many articles and even got some advice on the knitlist message boards that acrylic yarns are horrible for socks because they don't allow your feet to breathe. However, I feel as my first attempt at a pair of socks on small needles and with fingering weight yarn the choice to settle for the cheaper acrylic yarn was a good decision. I am quite eager to get some actual sock yarn for my next pair. I was researching on my LYS website and they have some sock yarn that is extremely reasonable, so hopefully sometime this summer I'll get a chance to get down there, but in the meantime I'm perfectly content with making small projects with yarn I can get at the craft store, besides I am currently in the middle of a new major project:What is that?? Why I think it may be the back panel of my very first sweater. In my last post I was still torn between a sweater and an afghan, but after bringing up my confusion at a family dinner a few nights later I finally decided on the sweater. As well, after I made my decision the Michaels flier came on Saturday morning and as if it were fate the yarn I needed was on sale! Yay! As you can see I chose a nice blue, it looks great when you hold it up next to denim and I can not wait to wear it with my favourite jeans and with any luck by the time I am done it will look something like this:

My goal by my next entry is to complete the second sock, or at least be finished working the heel and gusset. With any luck I'll also have more accomplished on my sweater. Perhaps I will even have another project on the go, I kind of feel like knitting up a dishcloth so maybe some of my cotton yarn will be lucky and find itself wiping a counter before the end of the week.

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

It seems like it has been raining for the whole month of may and I am beginning to get quite sick of it. You'd think that with all this rain I would have a ton of time to knit but I really have not been that productive lately.

A couple weeks ago I finally finished my bag which I was knitting with Bernat Softee Chunky, and it turned out quite well. I sewed a lining in it and have been using it as my everyday purse. I found the pattern on Bernat's website but I sort of modified it since I didn't like the way the bernat fancy fur looked with the colour of the softee chunky.

Since I last wrote I celebrated my 22'nd birthday, aren't I old now?? Anyways my birthday was great. I got a lot of money from my family and was able to buy a couple new outfits. I also purchased a few books (which i mentioned in my previous entry). Well "One Skein Wonders" and "Stitch 'N Bitch: A Knitters Handbook" arrived about a week and a half ago and I am quite impressed with both of them. SNB is one of the best handbooks I've come across, in fact, in the week and a half since it arrived I have consulted it many times. Not only does it have great instructions and helpful tips, but the information about knitting in it is great and I already have plans to make the kitty bed in, hopefully, the near future. "One Skein Wonders" is also great. This book has some great patterns that will make great Christmas gifts for family. I love how the book is organized by yarn weight so you can substitute yarns easily. The only downside is there are a few patterns that are horrible and I would never knit, like the knit collars *blech* they just seem much too old fashioned for my tastes. ALong with the knit collars some of the hats are tacky but some are really cute. The book was worth purchasing because out of the 101 patterns there are quite a few that I hope to attempt. I've already made a pair of wrist warmers/ fingerless mittens that I knit up in Bernat Satin and were knit on dpn. I've also started a pair of socks on dpn with fingering weight yarn. The pattern says that this pattern is great with handpainted yarn as it really shows it off. I'm knitting these socks up with Bernat Baby, since it's my first time using smaller needles and fingering weight yarn I didn't want to go out and spend a lot just in case I couldn't get the hang of it. I actually had to increase the size of the needle from a size 1 to one that I believe is almost a size 2 (I don't know the actual size since my inherited my grandma's knitting needles and her dpn were all thrown together without their sizes listed so I had to sort through them with my needle guage and these ones were not quite a 2 but did not fit in the size 1 slot), I've been working on them almost a week and it's taken a while to get the hang of the pattern and I'm just about to move onto the heel of the first sock. Once I get one finished I intend to post a pic on here.
I've been working on small projects for a while (socks, bags, mittens, scarves) and I think I need to begin a project that is going to take a long time to complete and something that will be very satisfying once I'm complete it. I'm torn between attempting my first sweater or an afghan (or this afghan). I have found the patterns for both and in the long run the sweater will cost me about half of what the afghan will but I do intend on completing both of them eventually. For the afghan I will have to purchase my first circular needle and a lot more yarn, but it is something that you can use almost every day and the colour I have chosen would look great in our basement. The sweater, however, is something every knitter must one day attempt and I have the needles and the yarn will only cost about $16 for the whole sweater. I'm really quite torn.
Anyways that's about all for now. Happy Knitting!

Gotta Love Online Shopping

There is just something about shopping online that is quite exciting. I am not one of those compulsive online shoppers, in fact it's almost been a year since I last made a purchase online (and that was my Knitting for Dummies Book). Since my 22'nd birthday is just around the corner (May 21) and I know I will be getting some money from family as presents I decided to make a couple purchases in advance so that they will be here just after my birthday. I pre-ordered the Harry Potter book, One Skein Wonders ( i hear that there are quite a few mistakes in the book but most reviews are positive and with my budget one skein projects are just right), and Stitch 'N Bitch: A Knitters Handbook (which I have read many positive reviews for, although I really thought about getting Not Your Mama's Knitting, which i may keep in mind at Christmas-time). I took the free delivery option, which means I may not be getting the Harry Potter book on the release date, so hopefully no one will spoil it for me!

At the moment I only have one knitting project on the go. I'm knitting a couple dishcloths for my grandpa for his birthday(which just happens to be May 22, the day after mine). We're having the family birthday party on saturday so I really need to finish them since I only have half of the first one complete.

Yesterday I finished the bag I've written about a few times. I finished knitting it on the weekend then I bought some cheap fabric to line it and a couple clasps. It turned out really cute!! I'm quite proud of it and will post pictures most likely in my next post. I also finished my first pair of socks, I really need to practice grafting (which i'm hoping my new knitting books will do), but i've worn them around the house since they're called "dorm socks" and they are quite comfortable. Here is a picture for your enjoyment! Isn't is adorable??Anyways I best be off!! Happy Knitting!

Yay it's May!

As my title says.... Yay it's may!!! Not only is may usually a great month of the year weather wise, it is also birthday central! This month is extra special because in 2 weeks I get to celebrate my birthday. Anyways on the topic of birthdays I want to wish Jenna a happy Early Birthday/whacking day. Her and I had a lovely knitting afternoon last monday and a nice catch up... and of course she got to smother my animals with love.

I've been semi busy with knitting projects.... I'm making progress on my bag. I have 1 panel done, about half done the second panel. I still need to make the bottom and the handles. I may get some fabric to line it with, but only if I really love the end result and plan on using the bag on a regular basis.

I made a quick I-pod cozy during our little knitting party. It originally began as a kitty toy (i've decided to make kitty toys and little items, like the ipod cozy, with all my little scraps of yarn) but this kitty toy was the perfect size for my Ipod so magically it turned into an ipod cozy.

My goal for this week is to quickly make up another dishcloth for my mom... i think i have enough Bernat handicrafter cotton lying around to make one.

I also have been attempting socks on dpn *ooooooh* I found a pattern that actually uses cheap ol' Red Heart yarn (I didn't want to go out and buy actual sock/fingering weight yarn to practice with). There were a few moments of frustration, and I ended up pulling it all out twice... but as of about 11:30 AM this morning I Have my very first sock... yay!!!!

The main problem i had with the sock were tiny holes/gaps. For example where you join the heel gusset with the instep. I found a website that shows exactly how to avoid that problem, so for the next one I shall follow that. I do not have a pic of my sock, since the batteries in my camera died and I was feeling too lazy to replace them... a picture will be coming shortly. I will leave you, however, with a couple pictures of other projects I have done.

This is a dishcloth I made out of Bernat Handicrafter cotton. I found this pattern in a book I took out of the public library and the pattern was called the "company dishcloth"... because apparently it is nice enough to use when company comes to visit.





This is a "pocketbook slipper" I made for my mom. It is a very simple pattern I found back around Christmas-time. I've made 3 pairs of them so far. I use just basic Red Heart yarn and they knit up pretty fast.... a nice mindless knitting project!


Anyways I best be off.... I shall write again soon!