I was at Borders and went to peruse the magazine racks for some good knitting magazines.
Knit'n'Style: The only thing that did NOT bore me was the Master Knitting area, but it only covered decreases and increases which I can easily find at KnittingHelp.com. No thank you. The lacy short-sleeves made out of yarn that is highly pricey is a pass.
Vogue Knitting: Like Knit'n'Style, except without the handy Master Knitting article. I couldn't tell the ads from the patterns either. I'd think "Oh! Neat socks!" only to find that, uh, that's an ad. Oop. Also it's highway snobbery when it comes to 'fashion' and 'yarn'.
Interweave Knits: Dude. I liked this. It was amusing to see just one model and all these (adorable) projects. I liked the layout and the multitude of projects. I bought this one. I look forward to making socks. :)
Okay, it's late. I'll update on the status of the 'shrug' soon.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
meep!
Christina! DON'T YOU DARE READ ANYTHING TILL YOU GET YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!!
Just my luck that I forget that I talk about her birthday present on this thing when I show it to her. "Oh, Abbie has a blog? I have one, too! Go here..." *page loads and so does Kit's brain* "OH WAIT, DON'T LOOK!" and C. being the smart girl she is slams on the Back button. She stares at me. "What...?" and from behind my hands covering my face I say with a muffled voice "...birthdaypresent." C. loves surprises so she goes "Ohh, okay, I won't look then."
Good girl, Christina. Don't look or scroll down or I will have to make something else. And keep this thing for myself, MWAHAHAHA!
Just my luck that I forget that I talk about her birthday present on this thing when I show it to her. "Oh, Abbie has a blog? I have one, too! Go here..." *page loads and so does Kit's brain* "OH WAIT, DON'T LOOK!" and C. being the smart girl she is slams on the Back button. She stares at me. "What...?" and from behind my hands covering my face I say with a muffled voice "...birthdaypresent." C. loves surprises so she goes "Ohh, okay, I won't look then."
Good girl, Christina. Don't look or scroll down or I will have to make something else. And keep this thing for myself, MWAHAHAHA!
The Blues
Okay, you know the other shrug I was making with the Blue Bernat Soft Boucle? I can't find anymore of that stuff. Oh sure, I go to the Bernat's website, figured out where I could find it and realize that it's in Michael's. So I trotted on over and couldn't find it...couldn't.find.it...oh, there's the Bernat Soft Boucle! But...no blue!!! Oh crudmuffins. Well, there is that nice variegated darkblue-blue-bluegreen-mustardyellow yarn. Close enough.
But I was annoyed that they had no more blue. Granted, when I first got it, I got it to make the hair for a plush of Tasuki's buddy from Fushigi Yuugi for an old friend but never did find time to do it (Watsuki is forever unfinished and lying at the bottom of a dumpster somewhere from when I cleaned everything out before I moved). Ah well, this is kinda pretty, too.
And I am going to have to do a cardigan version of Rogue. I'll do it with Futile and whoever else from the the LiveJournal Knitting Community wants to have a go.
And finally, I ordered the stuff from Knitpicks. five skeins of Shine and Shine Twist in Orchid for a future tanktop, two skeins of Sock Garden in Zinnia for, well, socks (duh!), and three skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Iris for the shrug I'm making when I hang out with Krista. ^__^ It totalled about $31 and I paid for it with the money I got from my tax refund (still plenty where that came from, but I ought to be careful, that's future apartment money). I'm really excited for it to come in!
Anyways, that's all for now, this is Kit signing off.
But I was annoyed that they had no more blue. Granted, when I first got it, I got it to make the hair for a plush of Tasuki's buddy from Fushigi Yuugi for an old friend but never did find time to do it (Watsuki is forever unfinished and lying at the bottom of a dumpster somewhere from when I cleaned everything out before I moved). Ah well, this is kinda pretty, too.
And I am going to have to do a cardigan version of Rogue. I'll do it with Futile and whoever else from the the LiveJournal Knitting Community wants to have a go.
And finally, I ordered the stuff from Knitpicks. five skeins of Shine and Shine Twist in Orchid for a future tanktop, two skeins of Sock Garden in Zinnia for, well, socks (duh!), and three skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Iris for the shrug I'm making when I hang out with Krista. ^__^ It totalled about $31 and I paid for it with the money I got from my tax refund (still plenty where that came from, but I ought to be careful, that's future apartment money). I'm really excited for it to come in!
Anyways, that's all for now, this is Kit signing off.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Come By The Hills
So, nary a day passes where I am not deeply entranched in yarn. And I'm contemplating some more! 10 skeins of Shine & Shine Twist in Orchid for a tank and maybe a shirt, too. And two skeins of Sock Garden in Zinnia for some more socks. :3 I know, I'm a yarn whore. But, look, I'm using up some of my stash!
See, I'm making that shrug for my sis. Have a look at the progress!
Barely starting and the color is pretty much straight on. My sister said it was a gorgeous color and thinks I'm making it for myself, teehee!
I was taking care of the cafe and I took the shrug with me...as you can see, it's already progressed quite a bit.
Then today, I finally decided I would do something other than knit at the Knitting Group at Vermillion Skies (whose members consist of me and...yeah, me). I brought
The Monster. I would like to promise here and now that I will never ever ever buy another skein of yarn without going to my LYS* and getting it winded into a ball for me. Never. It took me FOUR HOURS of almost straight winding to get the whole Monster put onto a Sharpie (I'll put it on a dowel for future use, but right now, the sharpie was the right shape and size). And it hurt me every time I had to cut to remove a knot. Ohhh, the pain. So, no matter how much it costs, it's worth it to get it wound for me than endure four hours on my feet of winding. Oy.
And that's my lesson for the day.
*LYS = Local Yarn Store/Shop/Shoppe.
See, I'm making that shrug for my sis. Have a look at the progress!
Barely starting and the color is pretty much straight on. My sister said it was a gorgeous color and thinks I'm making it for myself, teehee!
I was taking care of the cafe and I took the shrug with me...as you can see, it's already progressed quite a bit.
Then today, I finally decided I would do something other than knit at the Knitting Group at Vermillion Skies (whose members consist of me and...yeah, me). I brought
The Monster. I would like to promise here and now that I will never ever ever buy another skein of yarn without going to my LYS* and getting it winded into a ball for me. Never. It took me FOUR HOURS of almost straight winding to get the whole Monster put onto a Sharpie (I'll put it on a dowel for future use, but right now, the sharpie was the right shape and size). And it hurt me every time I had to cut to remove a knot. Ohhh, the pain. So, no matter how much it costs, it's worth it to get it wound for me than endure four hours on my feet of winding. Oy.
And that's my lesson for the day.
*LYS = Local Yarn Store/Shop/Shoppe.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
A new beginning
Seeing as how Kit's sister's birthday is coming up, she wanted to make her something fast (due date is May 12). A shrug seemed to be adequate since the local environment is still in the throes of indeciveness between summer and winter. This could be called 'spring', but it doesn't seem definite enough.
The shrug will be made on size 8 needles out of Bernat's Boucle in a light sky blue that Kit found while packing up to move. It was originally intended to be hair for a cloth doll that was to look like Tasuke's buddy from Fushigi Yuugi. Unfortunately, the doll was never made, but the yarn is delicious enough to be used for other purposes. Certainly it knits up very soft in a simple garter stitch.
Now for the informative part of the post: how Kit creates a swatch.
It starts with casting on 20 stitches. Once the twenty stitches are knitted up to twenty rows, Kit measures them. Say it is 5" per 20 stitches and 4" per 20 rows (this is made up, honestly). Now, the intended measurements, say, 15" by 20".
It's minor algebra. 20st/5" = x st/15". Multiply both sides by 15": 20st x 15" / 5" = x st = 60st! So, to get 15", one casts on 60 stitches.
I find it easier than trying to cast on to so many inches because CO's never seem to be accurate in length/width, whatever.
Now to watch a movie and knit furiously. >d
The shrug will be made on size 8 needles out of Bernat's Boucle in a light sky blue that Kit found while packing up to move. It was originally intended to be hair for a cloth doll that was to look like Tasuke's buddy from Fushigi Yuugi. Unfortunately, the doll was never made, but the yarn is delicious enough to be used for other purposes. Certainly it knits up very soft in a simple garter stitch.
Now for the informative part of the post: how Kit creates a swatch.
It starts with casting on 20 stitches. Once the twenty stitches are knitted up to twenty rows, Kit measures them. Say it is 5" per 20 stitches and 4" per 20 rows (this is made up, honestly). Now, the intended measurements, say, 15" by 20".
It's minor algebra. 20st/5" = x st/15". Multiply both sides by 15": 20st x 15" / 5" = x st = 60st! So, to get 15", one casts on 60 stitches.
I find it easier than trying to cast on to so many inches because CO's never seem to be accurate in length/width, whatever.
Now to watch a movie and knit furiously. >d
First post and first FO!
Knitting isn't exactly a challenging skill or anything. Honest. Once you get the hang of it, you can start doing it with your eyes closed! Rumor has it that Kit has even been caught dozing off to a knit stitch. True story, but she woke up in time for the end of her row. One must wonder what would have happened if she had been knitting on circulars! She may have slept forever, knit-knit-knit-knitting.
And so Kit has attempted to mix things up a little bit. Try something challenging. No, not a scarf. And she's graduated from hats (though she's interested in playing around with them). She has something new in mind. What is this then?
A sock.
So, she starts a sock. And manages to get to the heel 3 times before she is at a loss at how to turn this heel and frogs the silly thing thrice. But she goes undaunted! This time, she knows what she must do. She casts on 80 stitches and does the ribbing of k2p2 on size 3 needles. That should cover her ankles and fat legs! Then she begins the heel. With the help of some useful websites*, she successfully turns the heel! She tries it on, the heel looks perfect...though something else seems off. Perhaps too much give in the back? But the sock isn't done, perhaps this will straighten out once she is finished.
Then late into last night, she decreases for the toe, tries out the Kitchener Stitch for the first time and voila, she has a sock. And finds that it looks like something her friend Christin would declare "A most wonderful horror!" "A strange and unusual mistake!".
Oh dear. Well, take a look, Kit's sure to frog it again, so giggle while you can.
*Those Websites I Mentioned:
Socks 101
Sock Knitters
And, of course, the Knitty How-To.
Elizabeth Bennett's automatic sock pattern generator.
Algebraic Sock Pattern
Knitty's knitting instructions for toe-up socks
Knitted with KnitPicks Sock Garden in Hydrangea and with size 2 dpns
And so Kit has attempted to mix things up a little bit. Try something challenging. No, not a scarf. And she's graduated from hats (though she's interested in playing around with them). She has something new in mind. What is this then?
A sock.
So, she starts a sock. And manages to get to the heel 3 times before she is at a loss at how to turn this heel and frogs the silly thing thrice. But she goes undaunted! This time, she knows what she must do. She casts on 80 stitches and does the ribbing of k2p2 on size 3 needles. That should cover her ankles and fat legs! Then she begins the heel. With the help of some useful websites*, she successfully turns the heel! She tries it on, the heel looks perfect...though something else seems off. Perhaps too much give in the back? But the sock isn't done, perhaps this will straighten out once she is finished.
Then late into last night, she decreases for the toe, tries out the Kitchener Stitch for the first time and voila, she has a sock. And finds that it looks like something her friend Christin would declare "A most wonderful horror!" "A strange and unusual mistake!".
Oh dear. Well, take a look, Kit's sure to frog it again, so giggle while you can.
*Those Websites I Mentioned:
Socks 101
Sock Knitters
And, of course, the Knitty How-To.
Elizabeth Bennett's automatic sock pattern generator.
Algebraic Sock Pattern
Knitty's knitting instructions for toe-up socks
Knitted with KnitPicks Sock Garden in Hydrangea and with size 2 dpns
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